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    The NHS has spent at least £7m adapting or replacing equipment to fit obese patients The NHS has spent at least £7 million on adapting services and equipment to treat obese patients over the last five years, according to new figures. The data, obtained by Sky News through Freedom of Information requests, revealed many NHS foundation trusts increased spending on bariatric provisions in the last two years. Money was spent on items including bigger beds, wheelchairs and mortuary slabs, the broadcaster said. The new figures come amid a row between health campaigners and the Government over the introduction of a sugar tax to help curb obesity. Of 100 foundation trusts asked for information, around half responded suggesting the overall amount of money spent could be higher. Acco...

    Theresa May, the Home Secretary, is to accuse Britain's top police officer of making untrue claims over the causes of rising knife crime. In a hard-hitting speech to a policing conference, Mrs May will insist it is "simply not true" that incidents involving knives have increased due to Home Office-led changes to stop and search powers. Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, announced in June that he was sanctioning renewed use of the controversial powers as he explicitly linked their rationing with a 25 per cent jump in knife crime in the capital. In a rebuke which signals ever-worsening relations between the Home Secretary, Sir Bernard and other senior officers, Mrs May will accuse them of "a knee-jerk reaction on the back of a false link". The Home...

    Three overloaded boats carrying 140 refugees from Syria have washed up at Britain’s military base in Cyprus, potentially opening up a new front line in the migration crisis. The refugees, believed to include women and children, have been transferred to a temporary reception area at the sovereign base at Akrotiri on southern coast of the Mediterranean island. A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence confirmed that four boats had arrived at the base, which has been used to launch airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria. The MoD is still gathering details about the incident, including the number of refugees involved. “I believe it is more than a hundred, but there is no confirmation of the exact number at the moment,” the spokesman said. He said it was unc...

  The IndependentLast winter was the deadliest that Scotland has experienced for 15 years, official statistics have revealed, leading to calls for ministers to take action against the “scourge” of homes which are cold or difficult to heat. More than 22,000 deaths were registered in Scotland between December and March, according to data published by the National Records of Scotland (NRS) on 20 October – the highest overall number since the winter of 1999. The spike follows a record low of 18,675 deaths in the winter of 2013/14. The Scottish Government said the rise in the death toll could reflect the growing number of elderly people living in Scotland with multiple health problems. Respiratory and circulatory diseases were responsible for many of the deaths. Last winter’s “seasonal i...

    A mother was reduced to tears as she confronted a Conservative minister on Question Time about her government's decision to press ahead with £4.5bn of tax credit cuts next April. Amber Rudd, the Energy and Climate Change secretary, was left speechless as a woman in the audience told her exactly what the cuts would mean to her and her children. She explained how she had been left betrayed after voting for the Tories at the election only to be slapped in the face with cuts to working tax credits that are estimated to make three million families more than £1,300 a year worse off and made Ms Rudd look very uncomfortable as she finished off by shouting "shame on you". "I voted Conservative originally because I thought you were going to be the better chance for me and my childre...