Day: May 31, 2018

    Heavy rain and thunderstorms could cause chaos once again with an amber warning issued for flash flooding in some towns and cities. Rainfall of up to 50mm (2in) in just an hour caused travel problems and damage to homes and businesses earlier this week, and the heat and humidity today will fuel intense showers and thunderstorms across southern Britain. There is an amber warning for torrential rain, hail and lightning in place from 4pm until 6am on Friday for most areas in the South West, Wales and the West Midlands, as well as Oxfordshire, Hampshire and West Berkshire in the South East. The Met Office also has yellow warnings in place, advising that the storms may bring up to 80mm (3in) of rain in just a few hours. It says says power cuts are likely and there may ...

    A wave of devastating incidents of vital personal papers being lost in immigration cases has led to renewed calls for the Home Office to overhaul the way it handles documents. The problem has been so severe that at its peak the department routinely mislaid thousands of files, a former senior immigration official said. In the wake of the coverage of the Windrush scandal, the Guardian has spoken to people whose immigration status has been left in limbo after documents submitted to the Home Office have vanished. Despite this the Home Office has never made a voluntarily self-referral to the data protection watchdog over lost papers. The Home Affairs committee and the independent inspectorate have warned the Home Office repeatedly to improve the competency and accuracy...