backlog of cause of this is the backlog of people waiting for their asylum claims to be processed. back in december, rishi sunak pledged to clear the so—called legacy backlog, people who had made claims before june 2022 by the end of this year. progress has been made on that, which robertjenrick touched on today. the legacy backlog has come down. the government has doubled the number of caseworkers processing claims although labour have argued that a thousand more caseworkers would be needed. the total backlog, so notjust the claims made on four june 2022, but the total backlog of people waiting for their claims to be processed still remain stuck and pretty high. this is something that labour raised in the house of commons today, as well. that is largely due to people still arriving in high numbers. again, the government has cut the rates of

people arriving down since introducing more policing in france, more caseworkers and our returns agreement for migrants with albania. i think while that number remains very high, this issue of where to house people remains. if not in hotels, there is a further question of will other sites have to be used, student accommodation, foreign military bases or even purpose—built accommodation in the future? thank ou. thank you. to a story next that is one of the most read on the bbc news website. victims of violent and sexual crimes are calling for court transcript costs to be cut. one rape survivor has told bbc newsnight that she was quoted £7,500 for copes of her court hearings. live now to newsnight�*s uk editor, sima kotecha, who is in the newsroom.

what have you discovered? over the last few weeks i have been speaking to several victims, including victims of rape and attempted murder, some horrific stories i have heard in the last month or so. they have told me that they have been quoted what they call on a portable sums of money for transcripts of court proceedings. so those victims have sat through their trials and while they have been sitting through those trials they have struggled to take the information in because they are so affected by what happened to them, and also it is incredibly disturbing for many victims to see their perpetrator standing in the dock. because of those reasons, they wanted to look over the transcripts again after the trial had finished, also to look at the judges's summing up also to look at the judges's summing up to see what the judge said when

sentencing them. those remarks can often be very significant and also have an impact on how the victim feels at the end of that long process. we are talking about several weeks on trial. they are saying because the sums were so unaffordable they were not able to look over that. the ministry of justice has outsourced the transcription of court proceedings to six uk firms and they are the ones who account for how much they will actually cost. some of them charge about 80p for 72 words of transcription, if that transcript is to be delivered in a 12 day period. at the heart of this case victims, defendants and witnesses telling us that the justice system is supposed to be open, but they said because of this cost associated with those transcripts they feel that it is not open and they are not able to receive essential information that

gives them closure and helps them to heal after suffering such horrific abuse.~ . heal after suffering such horrific abuse. ~ . . , heal after suffering such horrific abuse. ~ . ., , ., ., abuse. what has the government had to say about — abuse. what has the government had to say about your— abuse. what has the government had to say about your investigation? - abuse. what has the government had to say about your investigation? the | to say about your investigation? the minist of to say about your investigation? tue: ministry ofjustice to say about your investigation? tte: ministry ofjustice has told us that the government has quadrupled funding for victim support since 2010 and it says that some judges can authorise free transcripts, but the victims we spoke to were rejected when they asked for this. they said that as court proceedings are not routinely transcribed, the fee covers the considerable cost of writing down the audio recording. so there argument is it is a laborious job for somebody to process information, transcribe it and make sure that there is nothing in that information that was said in camera information that was said in camera in court and is allowed to be given

over. in court and is allowed to be given over. you can see more on that on newsnight tonight at 10.30pm here on bbc news and on bbc two. a bbc investigation has found authorities failed to act on multiple warnings about a website promoting suicide and connected to at least 50 deaths in the uk. the site, which we are not naming, is easily accessible to anyone online, including children. families of the dead, the youngestjust17, are demanding an enquiry. a warning, you may find parts of angus crawford's report upsetting. if it was shut down five years ago, there would be hundreds or thousands of people still alive today. if it was shut down 12 months ago, my brother would still be here. the government are failing people. police are failing. i think it's disgusting. i think it's — it's criminal. changes how you see the world. you just learn how

evil the world is. this is michael dunham, who ended his life, taught a method and encouraged to die by a pro suicide forum, one of more than 50 people in the uk we've now identified, who did the same thing. michael's posts where he asked for help still there for his sister to see. somebody is telling my brother to make sure he's successful. and he's asking for advice as well. does he get the advice? yeah. they all told him how to do it. they just sit back and watch all this happening — all the posts on the forum and theyjust don't care. why are they running this site, in your view?

sorry. that's fine. do you want to take a moment or two? i don't know why they do it. no. sorry. i've been through so much in my life, i could have easily ended up on that forum myself. i just... i know how much the people on there are struggling. right now, i'm a bit of a mess because this is all i seem to be talking about. but i'm not going to stop, like... ijust can't... i can't live in a world knowing this stuff exists without trying to stop it. it's a site where the lonely, depressed and vulnerable meet. we're not going to name it. it's well known to the authorities and banned in some countries, but easily available here. people talk openly about suicide methods.

this administrator discusses hiding poison from the police when they carry out welfare checks. some forum members even post their final moments. rarely does anyone try to stop them. joe nihill found the site too. we've kept it as it is. his mum, catherine, and her daughter—in—law mel still havejoe's last note. even he wanted it shut down. "if you get my phone, you'll see a website. please do your best in closing that website for anyone else. look out for my mum and family." so he was still thinking about you? he was — thinking about his mum. that wasjoe.

yes. always looking out for others. he did. and that's why you're still doing this? both: yeah. so catherine and mel have been gathering evidence, lobbying the government, trying to unmask those behind the site. they've even managed to speak to one of its founders. indistinct. every single day. deal with your son dying! this is the man on the end of the line, an american, lamarcus small, who set up the suicide forum five years ago. we got hold of a photo from his high school yearbook. yeah. what i'd love to do to that smile on that face! you know, he needs putting in a cell and that cell being covered wall—to—wall and ceiling with every single face that's been on that site that has killed themselves.

one of those pictures would be of gary cooper. we used to go to the old kop. my dad would take us every week. gary's brother lee, like cathrine and melanie, wantsjustice. if you were sitting opposite lamarcus small now, what would you say to him? i don't know. i actually don't know. god, i don't know. i mean, in reality, i don't think there would be much said. i think i'd end up hurting the man, badly. you're angry? yeah. every person that's died through that site, there's a family behind that that's been destroyed. you know, there's friends. you could say there's a hundred people — behind every suicide death on that site, there's 100 people affected. and it'sjust going to keep on going. so i want to know what he gets out of it. that answer could lie here.

painstakingly, we've tracked lamarcus down to a small town in the southern us. we're in huntsville, alabama, and that, we think, is where lamarcus small lives. we've been waiting here all day and seen no sign at all, but we really want to try and talk to him. we wait into the night and for two more full days. nothing. until, suddenly, there he is. at last, lamarcus small. hi, lamarcus, how are you? i'm angus from the bbc. i want to talk to you about the suicide forum you set up. you know hundreds of people have died after going on that? children are even going on that. have you got anything to say to the relatives of the dead? lamarcus, surely you've got the guts to come out and talk to me?

so it looks like lamarcus has no remorse, no regret, and nothing to say to the relatives of the dead. and so we put a face to the name, but the site stays up — preying on the vulnerable, tormenting their families. angus crawford, bbc news, huntsville, alabama. if you've been affected by any of the issues in angus' film you can visit the bbc action line, which has details of organisations which can help, including urgent support. the address is on screen now or you can call forfree to hear recorded information on 0800 066 066.

stay tuned to the bbc for more on the ongoing conflict between israel and gaza.

live from southern israel — this is bbc news... an israeli woman, abducted by hamas and released, describes the �*hell�* she experienced, saying she was taken into a �*spider�*s web�* of tunnels beneath gaza. while she was being taken she was hit by sticks by shabab...? shabab. yeah, shabab people. french president emmanuel macron proposes an international coalition to help israel fight hamas. this fight against terrorism

is obviously a matter of existence for israel. but it is a matter of existence for all of us. hello, welcome to bbc news. we are alive in southern israel. —— we are live in southern israel. one of the two israeli women released last night — after being taken hostage by hamas — has spoken about her ordeal. yocheved lifshitz, who's 85, said she'd been through hell.

her husband is still being held. israel estimates more than 200 hostages remain in gaza —