A 16-year-old boy was shot by a man dressed as a food delivery driver on a moped, an eyewitness to the killing has told the BBC.

They said two boys came down the stairs at a block of flats when the man on the moped took out a gun and shot the boy dead. The other boy ran away, and the moped driver sped off, they added.

Police continue to look for those involved in the fatal shooting of the teenager in Stockwell on Tuesday afternoon.

The Metropolitan Police said the teenager died after being shot in an “enormously shocking incident” on Paradise Road at about 14:30 GMT. Police said inquiries were still ongoing.

No arrests have been made.

The eyewitness added the teenager who died was well known in the area and was involved in gangs.

Those living in the area have been shocked by the incident.

Patricia, who has lived in Stockwell for 21 years, said: “The situation is really bad now. I don’t go out anymore. In the night, I don’t feel safe.

“I feel so bad for the boy. It’s too much for me.”

Sandra, who also lives nearby, told BBC London on Wednesday: “It’s very sad; we know the family. The dad is very well known round here, who brought up our kids in youth clubs.

“It is awful, really sad, and really horrible.”

Roisin and Niamh said: “It feels quite unsafe; we are five girls living in a flat, and to have that on your doorstep is scary.”

They added: “We’re very upset for the whole community, and it’s a big shock to the system arriving home from work and having to sign in and out to get into your flat, with police constant over the last 24 hours.”

Florence Eshalomi, Labour (Co-op) MP for Vauxhall and Camberwell Green, told BBC London she wants people to feel safe within their community.

“Stockwell is a vibrant, diverse, close-knit community. We are going to make sure that there is a visible police presence to reassure people,” she said.

The MP added: “We will not tolerate this level of violence in Stockwell, Vauxhall or Camberwell Green, or anywhere across London.

“This is a sad, wasted life; this boy could have had so much potential. His future has been robbed.

“The family and community will continue to grieve; you can never get over this shock.”

Councillor Dr Mahamed Hashi, Lambeth’s Cabinet Member for Safer Communities, said: “We are shocked at this tragic violence in our borough in which a teenager has so cruelly been taken from us.

“As a council, we are committed to making Lambeth one of the safest boroughs in London and are working incredibly hard to play our role in ensuring the kind of violence that has so sadly claimed this young person’s life ends, and that all our young people have a secure future here.”

The Mayor of London, Sir Sadiq Khan, said: “This abhorrent violence has absolutely no place in our city.”

Sir Sadiq added: “My thoughts are with the family, friends and wider community in Stockwell.”

On Tuesday, Supt Gabriel Cameron said: “Our thoughts are with the young boy’s family at this devastating time.”

He added: “This is an enormously shocking incident, which I imagine will cause huge distress to the local community.

“Local officers are on the scene gathering CCTV and speaking to witnesses to piece together what has happened.”

A police cordon and road closures remain in place following the third homicide in the capital of someone aged under 25 this year.

Additional reporting by Gem O’Reilly and Barry Caffrey

The chancellor has earmarked several billion pounds in draft spending cuts to welfare and other government departments ahead of the Spring Statement.

The Treasury will put the proposed cuts to the government’s official forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), on Wednesday amid expectations the chancellor’s financial buffer has been wiped out.

Sources said “the world has changed” since Rachel Reeves’s Budget last October, when the OBR indicated she had £9.9bn available to spend against her self-imposed borrowing rules.

The OBR’s forecast is likely to see that disappear because of global factors such as trade tariffs, as well as higher inflation and borrowing costs in the UK.

The Treasury will on Wednesday inform the OBR of its “major measures” -essentially changes to tax and spending in order to meet the chancellor’s self-imposed rules on borrowing money.

The government has committed to get debt falling as a share of the economy during the course of this Parliament, and to only borrow to fund investment, not to cover day-to-day spending.

Such rules are put in place by most governments in wealthy nations and are designed to maintain credibility with financial markets. Reeves has repeatedly said her rules are “non-negotiable”.

The spending cuts drafted by the Treasury will help plug the gap that has emerged in recent months, ahead of the OBR publishing its forecast and Reeves giving a statement on 26 March.

Insiders expect “politically painful” new welfare cuts that are designed to reduce the huge growth in health-related benefits, which will be outlined in a forthcoming speech from Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall.

The Treasury has blamed global economic policy and geopolitical uncertainty for hiking up government borrowing costs.

Asked on Wednesday if welfare cuts were the right approach, Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood told the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme there had been a “huge rise in the welfare budget” and there were “too many” young people not in work, education or training.

“There’s a moral case here for making sure that people who can work are able to work and there’s a practical point here as well, because our current situation is unsustainable,” he added.

Mahmood declined to comment on whether the justice department would face cuts, saying she was “not going to get ahead” of Treasury announcements.

Reeves has previously pledged “fundamental” reform of the welfare system, with concerns over rising spending on health-related benefits.

Last year, the government spent £65bn on sickness benefits – a 25% increase from the year before the Covid pandemic.

That figure is forecast to increase to around £100bn before the next general election.

Some of that is a legacy of Covid, but ministers have complained about incentives in the system.

People on universal credit must show evidence they have applied for jobs, or face sanctions – but people out of work who also qualify for sickness benefits both get more money and are not necessarily required to seek work.

Ministers believe that this encourages some people to “game the system”.

But Fire Brigades Union general secretary Steve Wright said welfare cuts “would be an outrageous attack on the poorest and most vulnerable”.

The chancellor is set to argue that the government was always going to “fix welfare to get people back to work” and “make the NHS more productive”.

An insider told the BBC: “Headroom or no headroom, the chancellor is determined to push through the change we need to make Britain more secure and prosperous, with the whole government making that argument in the coming weeks.”

This week, US President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on its three biggest trading partners: Canada, Mexico and China.

Trump has indicated that the UK could avoid border taxes, but Reeves told the BBC on Tuesday that even if the UK is not hit by tariffs, a global trade war would lower growth and raise inflation.

Meanwhile, uncertainty over the war in Ukraine also remains, with the UK deciding to boost defence spending by cutting international aid.

One government insider told the BBC: “Clearly the world has changed a lot since the autumn Budget. People are watching that change happen before their eyes.

“The Office for Budget Responsibility will reflect that changing world in its forecasts later this month and a changing world will be a core feature of the chancellor’s response later this month.”

It is understood that the euro area economy stagnating and lower UK productivity numbers have affected the OBR’s forecast.

But there have also been concerns raised about the impact of Reeves’s previously announced tax rises on businesses, which are set to take effect in April, on the UK economy.

Some firms have warned the higher tax will likely be passed on through increased prices for customers.

Inflation, which is a measure used to give a general picture of how living costs have changed over a year, is expect to rise in the coming months as households are hit with increases to energy, water and council tax bills, among others.

In the run-up to the Spring Statement, Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden and Health Secretary Wes Streeting will also outline a significant efficiency drive within the civil service, which they hope will lead to significant headcount and cost savings.

Hannah Howie was a year away from getting married when a revelation from the past turned her life upside down.

Through research into her ancestry and family tree, her brother-in-law made an alarming discovery.

Luke Emerton found that a number of women on the paternal side had died from breast cancer at a young age – including Hannah’s grandmother.

This led to the 34-year-old having genetic testing and finding out she had a faulty gene, which dramatically increases the risk of certain cancers.

The BRCA genes are present in every person, both men and women, but when a fault occurs in one of them it can result in DNA damage and lead to cells becoming cancerous.

People with a genetic variant have a 50% chance of passing it on to their children.

Luke told BBC Scotland News how he stumbled upon the discovery.

He said: “We were trying to pull together a family tree for Hannah’s dad for his birthday and we found there was a line of female relatives on her dad’s side who had died of breast cancer at a young age.

“We clocked it with her gran, Agnes, who died at 33.

“Then we started noticing a pattern.”

He said the enormity of his discovery had yet to hit home.

Luke said: “Looking back, it’s so strange how all of this has come from that one gift.

“I’m so glad we found out this way and that Hannah knows about it and can act on decreasing the risk.

“The fact she has been able to pre-empt all of this is incredible.”

Prof Zosia Miedzybrodska, of the University of Aberdeen, decsribed BRCA 2 as a “huge gene” and said it could mutate and go wrong “in many ways”.

And she said the percentage difference between male and female cancers was “quite significant”.

“The risk increase for a woman with breast cancer is anywhere up to 85%,” she said.

“For prostate cancer it’s 27% and for male breast cancer it’s 10%.

“The only way you know if you have the faulty BRCA 2 gene is if there is a history of breast, prostate or ovarian cancer in the family.”

Cruise ship entertainer Hannah booked an appointment to discover if she had the gene, which also dramatically increases the risk of ovarian cancer.

She told BBC Scotland News: “I had to find out if I had the faulty BRCA 2 gene.

“Some people don’t want to know but for my sanity, I really had to know.”

A few weeks later, in November 2023, it was confirmed that Hannah had the BRCA 2 gene.

She immediately switched to survivor mode.

Hannah added: “When I heard the news, there were so many treatment options available.

“I knew I had to pick the one that would give me the most longevity in my life.

“The life I lead is too good to let it go.”

The entertainer said she had little doubt about what to do.

She said: “The doctor explained the biggest risk averter would be going for a double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery.

“If I go for this option, the breast cancer risk drops from 85% to 5%.

“It was a no-brainer for me. It was what I had to do.”

Hannah is due to go for a double mastectomy next week to remove the breast tissue and reduce her risk of breast cancer.

This will be followed by reconstructive surgery in the next few months.

Breast cancer surgeon Dr Liz O’Riordan said: “The reason we can’t say the percentage of BRCA 2 is 0% after the surgery is because it’s impossible to know if we have removed all breast tissue.

“It’s like removing seeds from an orange. You can’t be certain you’ve got them all.

“Even after surgery, our patients are told to be hypervigilant in checking themselves.

“You can’t be too careful when checking your body for any lumps or bumps.”

Hannah, who is just a year older than her late gran was when she died, is receiving her treatment through the NHS.

She is being supported by her husband, Graeme McLean, who she married in December last year.

Hannah said: “I had started thinking about children.

“If I have them, I run the risk of passing the gene onto them.

“Did I really want the possibility of my future children having to go through the same as me?”

Hannah, who is from Edinburgh but now lives in Motherwell, said she was overwhelmed at the thought of that happening.

She added: “That’s when I decided I would start taking my life day-by-day, hour-by-hour and minute-by-minute.

“I had to for my sanity.”

To cope with the life-altering development Hannah has written and starred in a cabaret called A Funeral for My Boobs.

She said: “I know it’s something many would look at negatively.

“Looking at it positively has really helped me come to terms with it.

“I call it A Fun-eral for My Boobs because to me it just feels like I’m welcoming the next chapter of my life.”

In the meantime, she said she is thankful for the “geekiness” of her brother-in-law whose research changed everything.

She said: “Mentally and physically, knowing has been a huge game-changer.

“I’ve had to rethink my entire future but knowing this has allowed me to pre-empt and prepare for it.

“That’s a luxury not a lot of people have.”

At-home tests for men worried about prostate cancer can give inconsistent and inaccurate results, BBC News has found.

The tests, which resemble a Covid lateral flow strip, turn positive if a high level of a protein called PSA is detected in a drop of blood.

Of five rapid tests analysed by the BBC, one did not work, three were negative or all-clear, but one returned a false positive result – all from the same blood sample.

Prostate Cancer UK said it had significant concerns about the sale of the tests given their “questionable accuracy” and the absence of a doctor to interpret the results.

There is no national prostate cancer screening programme in the UK, unlike for breast, bowel and cervical cancer.

Instead, the onus is on men to request a blood test from their GP once they are over 50 years old, or from 45 for higher risk groups.

That NHS test, which is processed in a laboratory, measures the level of PSA released by the prostate, a small gland involved in the production of semen.

A high PSA level does not mean you have cancer but is a warning sign which can then lead to further scans and tests to rule out the disease.

PSA levels can be high for a number of other reasons – including an infection, recent vigorous exercise or sex – or in some rare cases remain normal despite cancer.

Google search data suggests interest in testing has risen sharply since the Olympic cyclist Sir Chris Hoy went public with his own diagnosis in October 2024.

Dozens of companies now sell self-testing kits designed to measure PSA levels.

They are available online and from some pharmacies and convenience stores with prices from £6 to £95.

They come in two main types:

• tests in which a blood sample is taken at home and posted to a private laboratory for analysis
• rapid tests which give a result in minutes and display a dark line if PSA is detected above a certain level

The BBC analysed five rapid tests all bought online from different companies, using a blood sample taken on the same day.

The UK medicines regulator, the MHRA, says in its guidance that over-the-counter PSA kits are “not a reliable indicator of prostate cancer” and must not “claim to detect cancer”.

Instead, at-home tests are often marketed as a way to “screen” for the disease or “assess prostate cancer risk”, language the regulator says would be allowed under the current rules.

One of the home tests ordered by the BBC also arrived in packaging and with instructions clearly marked “for professional use only”.

For someone with no medical experience, the kits can be difficult to use.

A disposable lancet must pierce the skin, before drops of blood can be sucked into a pipette, mixed with a chemical and placed in the test cassette.

Of the five kits analysed by the BBC, one did not produce a readable result; three came back all clear; but one did show a solid dark line, indicating a PSA level above 4.0 ug/l.

A private blood test taken the same day and sent to a laboratory showed a much lower reading of 0.27 ug/l.

“As your experience shows, these rapid tests appear to have questionable accuracy,” says Amy Rylance, assistant director of health improvement at Prostate Cancer UK.

“That’s a big problem because they can falsely reassure people who really do have elevated levels of PSA and should seek further testing, or they can cause undue worry among people who are absolutely fine.”

Online reviews appear to bear that out.

In one, a customer posted that he was “really scared” after two rapid home tests indicated a high PSA level. A later NHS test showed his reading was normal.

In another one-star review, a woman wrote that her husband took two home tests for “peace of mind” and both were negative. An NHS blood test then showed high levels of PSA and he was diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer.

The British In Vitro Diagnostics Association, which represents the blood testing industry, says that while home tests are appropriate in many circumstances, “this particular type of [PSA] test may not give an accurate indication of prostate health when taken outside the NHS”.

Instead it says men concerned they may have cancer should see their GP.

In the NHS, doctors often use PSA testing as part of a wider consultation about prostate health, bringing in other risk factors like age, ethnicity and family history.

Dr Sam Merriel, a GP and prostate cancer researcher at the University of Manchester, says a full NHS laboratory test can give a far more detailed picture than a cheap home kit that is either positive or negative.

“The actual PSA reading is really important to understand because, as a GP, if I saw a PSA of 4.0 I’d be treating that very differently from a PSA of 400,” he adds.

“You just don’t get that level of information from a fast home test, so patients might not get the full picture.”

Prostate Cancer UK describes the growth of home testing as “the symptom of a wider problem”.

“Too many men still don’t realise they can access tests through a GP and the guidelines for doctors are dangerously outdated,” says Amy Rylance from the charity.

Sir Chris Hoy has been calling for the age to be lowered at which those at higher risk, such as black men or those with a family history, can ask their GP for PSA testing.

The government says current guidelines should not stop doctors from offering a test under the age of 50, but critics say the rules are unclear and there are huge variations in diagnosis rates between GP surgeries.

Prostate Cancer UK has also been calling for a change to allow medics to proactively talk to higher risk patients about the pros and cons of testing instead of waiting for them to come forward.

A spokesman for the Department of Health says it has asked the UK National Screening Committee, which advises the NHS, to review the evidence on testing, with a response expected later this year.

“Prostate cancer patients are waiting too long for diagnosis and treatment but through our National Cancer Plan we will transform the way we treat cancer,” he added.

Most areas in England are planning cuts to specialist eating-disorder services for children and young people this year, an analysis shows.

Of the nation’s 42 NHS integrated care boards, 24 are due to reduce spending for under-18s in 2024-25, once inflation is taken into account.

Overall spending is due to go up by 2.9%, with budgets rising in the other areas, but the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCP), which carried out the analysis, said this was too little to cope with increased in demand.

NHS England said improving care was “vital” and more action was being taken in the community to support young people before their condition became a crisis.

Spending had been increasing for a number of years but “more work needs to be done”, an official added.

Veronika, 20, has been struggling with an eating disorder for five years.

“Shrugged off” by services in the past, she says cuts could be “catastrophic” for people like her.

“It will have a knock-on impact and people won’t want to seek help even from their GP, even for physical-health monitoring,” Veronika says.

“It will just spiral on and on.

“It is horrible living day in and day out with it.

“And if you are not seen quick enough, I know myself how quickly things can spiral in a matter of weeks or days.

“It is going to be tragic for some and just long and horrible for others”.

Eating-disorder services cover a range of different support, from therapy and counselling to crisis support and hospital treatment.

But they were already underfunded, the RCP said, and it had had to ration care to the under-18s most affected.

Last year, referrals went up by 13%.

By the end of 2024, more than 6,000 under-18s were on waiting lists.

And targets for routine and urgent waits are not currently being met.

Dr Ashish Kumar, of the RCP, said: “Eating disorders, in particular anorexia, have high rates of mortality yet are treatable conditions.

“And with the right care and support in a timely manner, most patients can make a full recovery.”

Tom Quinn, of the eating disorder charity Beat, said: “We are extremely concerned at the prospect of funding cuts to children and young people’s eating-disorder services.

“These vital services are already on their knees.”

It comes after the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Eating Disorders warned “woefully inadequate care” meant lives were being lost and families torn apart.

Ministers have pledged to increase the number of judges hearing criminal cases in an attempt to cut unprecedented backlogs and delays in Crown Courts in England and Wales.

The Ministry of Justice’s announcement that judges will be funded to run more courtrooms than before comes as two highly critical reports say that victims of crime are being failed.

The Victims Commissioner Baroness Newlove said that some victims were so traumatised by delays they had resorted to drugs, alcohol and self-harm.

The new funding means judges can hear Crown Court cases for up to 110,000 days in total, which minister hope will start to cut a record backlog of 73,000 unresolved prosecutions.

Suspects being charged with new offences today are regularly told that there might not be a trial until 2027 – and some courts are already looking for diary space in 2028.

The delays – which have been caused by a combination of cuts to courts, the pandemic and then a barristers’ strike over pay – have also led to a record 17,000 defendants being held on remand, taking up a fifth of spaces in the crisis-ridden jails.

Last November, Baroness Sue Carr, the Lady Chief Justice, told Parliament she had enough judges available to sit for 113,000 days a year in court.

She said a cap on sitting days had a “drastic effect”, with her local leaders having to reschedule cases and cancel work given to part-time judges, who are critical to clearing the backlog.

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said: “This government inherited a record and rising courts backlog, with justice delayed and denied for far too many victims.

“Bearing down on that backlog is an essential element of our Plan for Change, bringing offenders to justice to keep our streets safe.”

Mahmood said that recommendations from an ongoing review of how to speed up the criminal courts would play a key role in cutting the backlogs.

But two reports have raised questions about how quickly the government is acting.

The Victims Commissioner Baroness Newlove said in a report published on Tuesday that justice felt “out of reach” for many victims, which was causing extra trauma.

One woman, who had suffered sexual abuse, tried to take her own life after the trial of her attacker was put back.

Baroness Newlove urged the government to reverse a planned cut of around 4% to crucial victim support services, which she warned were under “immense pressure” because delays meant they are dealing with more clients than ever.

“With funding cuts looming, we face the very real threat of reduced support,” she said.

“I fear this will drive some victims to give up on seeking justice altogether – a second injustice compounding the first.”

Separately, Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee said it was concerned that the MOJ had “accepted” court delays getting worse until recommendations from the major review into reforming the courts, led by retired judge Sir Brian Leveson, were implemented.

The report said that the courts could not keep up with the rate of new cases arriving at their doors .

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the committee’s chair, said: “Our report is a terrible indictment of our criminal justice system and the government urgently need to reorganise it to aspire to that world-class standard for which the UK used to be renowned.”

Mary Prior KC, chair of the Criminal Bar Association which represents barristers, said that 110,000 sitting days was the minimum that had been needed since 2022.

“We welcome these additional sitting days… but to do our collective best to reduce the backlog we must ask for uncapped sitting days in the Crown Court for at least the next five years.”

Investment firm Abrdn will add the vowels back into its name after dropping them in a rebrand that was widely mocked.

The firm said it will now be called aberdeen group, with no capital letter at the start. In the past it has been Aberdeen Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management.

Its rebrand to Abrdn in 2021 was largely derided, with some saying it seemed like a typo, and others joking the firm had “irritable vowel syndrome”. The company said the mockery amounted to “corporate bullying”.

Chief executive Jason Windsor said the latest name change would remove “distractions”.

“This is a pragmatic decision marking a new phase for the organisation,” said chief executive Jason Windsor, as he revealed a strategy revamp.

The firm has faced a barrage of mockery over the last four years since rebranding to Abrdn under previous boss Stephen Bird.

It attracted reaction on social media with one user posting a mock-up of word game Countdown. The letters ABRDN are shown on the letter board behind presenter Rachel Riley, with the words “another consonant please Rachel…”

A new version of the image was posted on Tuesday with one user joking that reinstating the vowels was responsible for the firm’s share price rising.

When a senior executive said in 2024 that mockery around its name was corporate bullying, the Financial Times responded by publishing a post that read “Lv Abrdn aln” (Leave Abrdn alone), while City AM ran with a front page that read “Abrdn: an apology – sry we kp tkng th pss ot of yr mssng vwls”.

Rebrands for big firms have in the past proven tricky to navigate. Royal Mail, for example, caused a public outcry after it suggested a name change to “Consignia” in 2002.

A few years ago, Volkswagen was greeted with derision after an April Fool’s joke misfired. The German car giant was forced to deny that it was changing its name to “Voltswagen” in the US, despite having said in a press release that it would.

Tuesday’s announcement from aberdeen group came as it revealed a return to profit in 2024 with pre-tax profits of £251m.

As part of Mr Windsor’s new strategy, he said he was starting the search for a new chairman and increasing targets for profit growth.

The company said it expected costs associated with the name change to be “negligible”.

Scottish painter Jack Vettriano, best known for his painting The Singing Butler, has died at the age of 73.

His publicist said the artist was found dead at his apartment in Nice, in the south of France, on Saturday.

It is understood there are no suspicious circumstances surrounding his death.

Vettriano, who was born Jack Hoggan on 17 November 1951 in Methil, Fife, was a self-taught artist.

He left school at 16 years of age to become a mining engineer.

For his 21st birthday, he was given a set of watercolour paints and, from then on, he spent much of his spare time teaching himself to paint.

He drew inspiration from works at Kirkcaldy Galleries, studying paintings from artists such as Samuel Peploe and William McTaggart so intently that he feared arousing the suspicions of gallery staff.

His breakthrough came in 1998 when he submitted two paintings to the Royal Scottish Academy’s annual show and both sold on the first day, inspiring him to become a full-time artist.

While often dismissed by critics, his works garnered international acclaim, leading to exhibitions in cities such as Edinburgh, London, Hong Kong, Johannesburg and New York.

His best-known work, The Singing Butler, sold at auction in 2004 for £744,800 – a Scottish record at the time.

It depicts an elegant couple dancing on a storm-swept beach accompanied by their butler and maid.

Among those who acquired Vettriano paintings were Jack Nicholson, Sir Alex Ferguson, Sir Tim Rice and Robbie Coltrane.

His publicist said: “Jack Vettriano’s passing marks the end of an era for contemporary Scottish art.

“His evocative and timeless works will continue to captivate and inspire future generations.”

Families of children and young people with cancer are struggling financially for several months waiting for benefits to help cover extra costs caused by the illness, according to a charity.

Young Lives vs Cancer says families need “immediate” help with additional living costs, which amount to £700 a month on average – and is calling for quicker access to the funds.

One family has said they were left “financially broken” by the extra living costs after their 16-year-old son Oliver’s leg had to be amputated because he had a rare type of cancer.

The government says it is committed to giving people access to benefits in a “timely manner”, but acknowledges that “waits are too high”.

Kerry Bolton, from Solihull, said she had to wait five months before a decision was made on her benefits application after her son Oliver was diagnosed with cancer, aged 16.

“The hospital is an hour away from us and I don’t drive. It was costing us £48 a day for us to travel in taxis there and back.”

Oliver later underwent a leg amputation, meaning his family had to buy new clothes to fit him.

They also faced higher electricity bills to charge his prosthetic leg, Ms Bolton said.

“Ollie’s leg needs electricity…if I don’t have electricity, he can’t walk.”

Ms Bolton said she also had to use more energy to heat her home to keep Oliver warm, because of his immunosuppression treatment.

During a child’s cancer treatment, families may need to travel to distant appointments, buy special food, use more electricity and heating, pay for childcare for siblings, and stay in hotels.

Under UK law, cancer patients may be entitled to benefits to help with costs.

However, patients are not eligible for financial support until they have been ill for three months.

They then face a further wait of four months on average for their application to be assessed, according to Young Lives vs Cancer, which has interviewed hundreds of patients and put out a new report.

The charity is calling for families to qualify for benefits immediately following a diagnosis.

Danielle Roberts, from North Wales, told the BBC that she experienced financial “strain” as soon as her nine-year-old daughter Jasmine was diagnosed with cancer last year, but she did not receive any benefits for eight months.

“We were just thrown into this world where…our child’s got cancer and we don’t know if she’s going to survive, along with dealing with the financial impact.

“You’ve still got all these bills to pay on top of going back and forward to hospital, which was an hour and 15 minutes away, extra food, accommodation”.

Ms Roberts said having to take long periods off work added to the financial strain.

“My income was dramatically reduced because it’s hard to work when your child is in hospital… and you don’t want to work, you should be able to spend time with your child when they’re poorly.”

“What we’re seeing is heartbreaking,” Young People vs Cancer’s chief executive Rachel Kirby-Rider told the BBC.

“People don’t have that disposable income, they don’t have that money in savings.

“Having to wait seven months for disability benefits is driving a lot of families into debt and impacting families at a time they just want to concentrate on getting their child well.”

The charity is also concerned about the application process, as the 50-page forms were “tricky, long and complex”, asking families for detailed descriptions about their child’s needs.

The process should be made “simple and efficient”, it says, by using medical evidence alone to make applications.

Ms Roberts said she struggled to find the “head space” to complete the application form when her daughter Jasmine was ill.

“They asked so many questions and you’ve got to send added proof… you don’t want to have to think about that really as well as ‘is my child going to be OK?’.

“It’s something that shouldn’t have to be done when you’re going through that traumatic time.”

A Department for Work and Pensions spokesperson said: “We are committed to ensuring people can access financial support through Personal Independence Payment and Disability Living Allowance for children in a timely manner.

“But we recognise waits are too high, and we have increased the number of staff to respond to the increase in claim volumes.”

The Covid public inquiry will start four weeks of hearings on Monday, looking into the purchase and distribution of billions of pounds’ worth of medical equipment during the pandemic.

In total, it’s thought £48bn was spent on personal protective equipment (PPE), the test-and-trace programme, hospital supplies and the vaccine rollout.

Nearly 10% of contracts were awarded to firms with a link to the Conservative government in power at the time, according to the organisation Transparency International.

Bereaved families have accused the inquiry of a “potential whitewash” after it emerged representatives of PPE suppliers will not be called upon to give evidence.

This fifth section of the inquiry will hear from 50 witnesses, expected to include law experts, civil servants, politicians and transparency campaigners.

Questioning will cover the value of contracts awarded to companies in the pandemic, spending controls, the prevalence of fraud and the steps taken to eliminate it.

The inquiry will also look in detail at the use of the so-called “VIP lane” – officially known as the high priority lane – to award government contracts.

Introduced in April 2020, the idea was to treat offers to supply PPE with greater urgency if they came with a recommendation from ministers, MPs, members of the House of Lords, or other senior officials.

At the time the government said there was a “desperate need” to protect health and social care staff, and it was argued swift action was required to secure PPE.

A National Audit Office report later found that up to the end of July 2020, about one in 10 suppliers in the high priority lane was awarded a contract, while the figure was less than one in 100 for other suppliers.

The government ordered more than 30m masks, gowns and other items of PPE during Covid, with contracts totalling £14.6bn.

This part of the inquiry will also look at the purchase of ventilators to help patients breathe, as well as millions of lateral flow and PCR tests.

Bereaved families have accused the inquiry of “protecting PPE suppliers from scrutiny”, after it emerged the inquiry would not seek evidence from commercial firms involved in the contracts.

Lobby Akinnola, whose father Femi died in April 2020, said individual suppliers need to be held to account.

“If people are not called to give evidence, then how are we ever going to know what went wrong?” he asked.

“Covid cost the lives of nearly 250,000 people in the UK, and if we don’t take every step we can to learn from mistakes, we are going to leave a weakness in our response.”

A spokesman for the Covid inquiry said it did not need to hear evidence directly from PPE firms as the focus “is on how the government responded to suppliers’ offers”.

“Our role is not to pursue criminal investigations into individuals or suppliers – that is a matter for law enforcement,” he said.

The inquiry also ruled in January that any sensitive evidence about PPE Medpro, the supplier linked to Baroness Michelle Mone and her husband Doug Barrowman, would be held in private to avoid prejudicing any criminal investigation.

The inquiry’s chair, Baroness Hallett, has already taken evidence on other subjects including pandemic planning and political decision-making, the impact on the NHS and the vaccine rollout.

Future phases later this year will cover the care sector, test-and-trace, the impact on children, and the economy.

The latest increase in rail fares in England and Wales is set to pile “further misery on hard-pressed households”, a campaign group has said.

From Sunday, regulated rail fares in England and Wales have risen by 4.6% and the price of most railcards has increased by £5.

The government says fares need to rise so it can invest in the rail system, but Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander acknowledged passengers were “frustrated” by delays and cancellations.

The Campaign for Better Transport said people were being “priced off the railways” by fare increases.

The rail fare rise for regulated tickets includes most season tickets covering commuter routes in England, which can cost thousands of pounds.

Some off-peak returns on long-distance journeys, and flexible tickets for travelling in and around cities will also rise.

Train operators set their own prices for unregulated fares, but these tend to increase by a similar amount to regulated fares, including on lines that have already been renationalised.

About 45% of train fares are regulated in England, Wales and Scotland, but the 4.6% rise relates to travel in England and Wales only.

In Scotland, rail fares are set to increase by 3.8% in April.

In Northern Ireland, the nationalised Translink service said no decision had yet been taken by the Department for Infrastructure on whether rail fares will go up in 2025.

The cost of most railcards has also gone up by about £5, from about £30, but disabled railcards remain the same price.

The Campaign for Better Transport said the fare increases would add to the pressure on households, coming on top of higher food and energy costs.

Michael Solomon Williams, head of campaigns at the group, said high ticket prices were the “number one barrier to getting more people travelling by rail”, and called on the government to bring down fares as part of rail reforms.

“People are being hit hard,” he told the BBC. “People want to take the train and they’re being priced off the railways.

“At the same time fuel duty’s being frozen. Government has the choice, it can choose to intervene.”

The campaign group said out of 40 commuter routes into London, annual season tickets for three will top £6,000 for the first time, with 10 others already there.

Annual season tickets from Canterbury and Southampton into London will go up by more than £300 to £7,100 and £7,477 respectively.

Adrian Rose, 50, from Sittingbourne in Kent says hiking rail fares when they are already “crazily expensive” is not justifiable.

For him and his wife and two daughters to drive from Kent to see relatives in Newcastle is no more than £100 in fuel for the family, whereas to go by train can cost more than £400 if booking close to the departure date.

“The cost is prohibitive,” he says.

“I would happily take the train, but for over four times the cost? I could have a week’s holiday for that money.”

But Celia Downie, who uses the train regularly for work and leisure, says she will continue to do so “however much it costs”, because “I can work on the train and I believe it is environmentally proper to do so”.

But the 68-year-old from Bristol, who has a Senior Railcard, also believes prices are too high for families and says sometimes the experience of cramped carriages is “absolutely appalling”.

Heidi Alexander said she understood passenger frustration that fares keep rising “despite unacceptable levels of delays and cancellations”.

However, she said it was the lowest absolute increase in fares for three years.

“We inherited a railway that was not fit for purpose, and I know it will take time for trust to be restored, with trains turning up on time, when and where they’re needed.”

Alex Robertson, chief executive of watchdog Transport Focus, said its research had found a “a clear mismatch between ticket prices and the service people receive”.

“This needs to change,” he added, saying that passengers “rightly expect… to see improvements for the money they have paid”.

The government plans to renationalise rail firms as operators’ contracts either end or reach a break.

However, although three rail operators are set to be renationalised this year – South Western Railway, C2C and Greater Anglia – this is not expected to bring ticket prices down.

It is setting up a new arms-length body, Great British Railways (GBR), to take over service contracts currently held by private firms as they expire in the coming years.

Conservative shadow transport secretary Gareth Bacon said price increases showed that Labour’s pledges to make rail fares cheaper were “meaningless” and commuters were instead facing “chaos, confusion and cancellation” on the railways.

“Labour’s radical plans to hand control of the railways to the unions will only worsen services,” he said.

“Under new leadership, the Conservatives would put passengers first, ensuring that any fare increases are fair and proportionate.”

Additional reporting by James Kelly

In Union County, South Carolina, the sprawling cotton mills that once put bread on the table for many are long gone. Union is also what is termed a “food desert”, where many residents live far from the nearest supermarket. So in 2016, local non-profit director Elise Ashby began working with farmers to deliver discounted boxes of farm-fresh produce across the county, where 30% of the population is black and roughly 25% live in poverty.

To fund this, Ms Ashby first relied on her own savings and then some small-scale grants. But in 2023, the Walmart Foundation – the philanthropic arm of one of America’s largest corporations – awarded her over $100,000 (£80,000), as part of a $1.5m programme to fund “community-based non-profits led by people of colour”.

“I cried a little bit,” she says. “It was just one of those times where, like, somebody actually sees what you’re doing.”

Two years ago, this was the kind of programme that attracted sponsorship from major companies across America, as the country grappled with racism past and present following the murder of George Floyd, a black man suffocated under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer during an arrest in 2020.

But now, those same companies are pulling back. Walmart announced in November that it was ending some of its diversity initiatives, including plans to close its Center for Racial Equity, which supported Ms Ashby’s grant.

Corporations from Meta and Google to Goldman Sachs and McDonald’s have all announced similar changes as part of a larger retreat from diversity, equity and inclusion programmes (DEI) across the corporate landscape.

The moment represents a stark cultural shift, fuelled in part by fears of lawsuits, investigations, and social media backlash, as well as relentless pressure from the new president of the United States.

Since assuming office in January, Donald Trump has aggressively sought to “terminate DEI” and “restore merit-based opportunity” in the US. He has directed the federal government to end its DEI programmes and investigate private companies and academic institutions thought to be engaged in “illegal DEI”.

In the early days of his second term, the Veterans Affairs department has closed its DEI offices, the Environmental Protection Agency has placed nearly 200 employees who worked in its civil rights office on paid leave and Trump has fired the top military general, a black man whom his defence secretary had previously said should be fired because of his involvement in “woke” DEI.

At first sight, it may appear that the US’s experiment with policies designed to improve outcomes for specific racial and identity-based groups is finished. But some experts suggest there’s another possibility, that some such efforts will continue – but in a different guise, one more suited to the political mood of a country that has just elected a president who has pledged a war on “woke”.

Programmes resembling DEI first emerged in earnest in the US in the 1960s, in the wake of the civil rights movement that fought to protect and expand the rights of black Americans.

Under names like “affirmative action” and “equal opportunity”, initially their aim was to reverse the damaging effects of centuries of enslavement of African Americans and decades of discrimination under “Jim Crow” laws that enforced racial segregation.

As the movement evolved, promoting the rights of women, the LGBT community, and other racial and ethnic groups, use of the terms “diversity”, “equity” and “inclusion” became more widespread.

DEI programmes in the corporate world and government agencies have often focused on hiring practices and policies emphasising diversity as a commercial benefit. Their supporters say they aim to address disparities affecting people from a range of backgrounds, though a significant emphasis tends to be on race.

The programmes saw a huge upswing in 2020 during the social unrest of the Black Lives Matter movement. For example, Walmart committed $100m over five years to its racial equity centre. Wells Fargo appointed its first chief diversity officer; Google and Nike already had theirs in place. After adjusting their hiring practices, companies listed on the S&P 100 added more than 300,000 jobs – 94% of which went to people of colour, according to Bloomberg.

But almost as quickly as the pendulum swung left, a conservative backlash began. For Stefan Padfield, executive director of conservative think-tank the National Center for Public Policy Research, DEI programmes are based on a premise that “divides people on the basis of race and sex”.

More recently, these arguments that programmes intended to combat discrimination were themselves discriminatory, particularly against white Americans, have been made with increasing force. Training sessions emphasising concepts like “white privilege” and racial bias have drawn particular scrutiny.

The roots of this opposition took hold in conservative opposition to critical race theory (CRT), an academic concept which argues racism is endemic to American society. Over time, the campaign to remove books from classrooms that allegedly indoctrinated students into CRT thinking evolved into one focused on “punishing woke corporations”.

Social media accounts like End Wokeness and conservative activists such as Robby Starbuck seized the moment to target companies accused of being “woke”. Mr Starbuck has taken credit for changes in policy at the likes of Ford, John Deere and Harley-Davidson after he publicised details of their DEI initiatives to his social media followers.

One of the clearest signs of this movement’s strength came in spring 2023, after a Bud Light partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney sparked right-wing outrage and calls for a boycott of the beer and its parent company Anheuser-Busch. In the aftermath of the campaign, Bud Light sales were 28% lower than usual, a Harvard Business Review analysis found.

Another major victory for conservatives arrived in June 2023, when the Supreme Court ruled that race could no longer be considered as a factor in university admissions, reversing decades of affirmative action-based policy.

The ruling also cast the legal standing of corporate DEI policies into uncertainty. When Meta made the internal announcement it was cancelling DEI programmes, the company told staff “the legal and policy landscape” surrounding DEI had changed.

The speed at which some large corporations have shed their DEI policies raises the question of how genuine their commitment to diversifying their workforces was in the first place.

Martin Whittaker, chief executive at JUST Capital, a non-profit that surveys Americans on workplace issues, says much of the backtracking comes from companies who were “rushing to kind of look good” at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement.

But not all are yielding to political and legal pressure. Conservative think-tank the Heritage Foundation noted in a November report that although DEI programmes appear to be trending downwards, “nearly all” Fortune 500 companies still list DEI commitments somewhere on their websites. Apple shareholders recently voted to continue diversity programmes at the company.

Surveys that measure Americans’ support for DEI offer mixed results. JUST Capital’s survey suggests support for DEI has declined, but support for issues closely linked to it – such as fair pay – have not. A 2023 survey from the Pew Research Center suggested most employed adults (56%) believed “focusing on increasing DEI at work is a good thing”.

Much rests on the question of whether DEI is actually effective in the first place.

Some research has suggested that DEI programmes like diversity training can in fact be harmful. According to one study by researchers from Harvard University and the University of Tel Aviv, trainers commonly report hostility and resistance from employees who feel forced to do the training and threatened by what they see as reverse discrimination; it also says the programmes can often leave trainees feeling more hostility towards other groups.

This research has been seized on by DEI’s opponents as part of the evidence that “the best way to improve the lives of all our citizens, and all our neighbours, is to allow the free market to lift all the boats”, as Mr Padfield puts it.

The problem with this kind of thinking, according to Siri Chilazi, a researcher focused on gender equity at Harvard University, is that there is no historical precedent to suggest that racial and gender imbalances will correct themselves. Mrs Chilazi says racial and gender barriers still exist and believes DEI solutions focused on “levelling the playing field for all” are needed.

She cites multiple experiments that show white men disproportionately receive more responses after applying for jobs than women or people of colour. A recent study by the National Bureau of Economic Research sent identical CVs to roughly 100 of the largest US companies and found that applicants presumed to be white were contacted by employers 9.5% more often than applicants presumed to be black – with one company contacting presumed white applicants 43% more often.

But Mrs Chilazi also says there are genuine issues with many DEI programmes, adding that the most common programmes – including diversity and unconscious bias training and employee resource or affinity groups – are often the least effective. A recent study highlighting the ineffectiveness of some DEI practices said a common issue was treating them as an end goal in themselves, without measurable outcomes.

And when it comes to large corporations donating money towards DEI initiatives – like Walmart’s equity centre – Mrs Chilazi says the problem is that there is not much data to show how effective this is. “This is an area where we actually don’t have good research,” she says.

Where studies have shown DEI to be effective is when it comes to making “small systemic changes”, she says. There is evidence to suggest replacing open-ended questions in performance evaluations with more specific ones, such as “what’s the one biggest accomplishment of this person last year?”, has shown significant reductions in gender and racial evaluation gaps that can affect pay, according to Mrs Chilazi.

Supporters of DEI say the real-world impact of the shift from it can be seen at Harvard University, which was targeted in the landmark Supreme Court case.

Last autumn, Harvard Law School reported having only 19 first-year black students among more than 500 students that enrolled, according to the American Bar Association. That was less than half the number from the previous year – 43 – and the lowest since the 1960s. The law school also saw a significant decline in Hispanic student enrolment, which dropped from 63 to 39 between 2023 and 2024.

Colleges and schools have already begun making adjustments in response to the new climate. At one university, a lunar new year celebration was cancelled; another ended a decades-long forum on race. Elsewhere, social clubs for black and Asian students have been disbanded.

But the ruling’s impact does not appear straightforward. Enrolment numbers for black and Hispanic students at some other top US colleges have actually increased since the Supreme Court’s decision.

For the freshman class that arrived in the autumn, Northwestern University saw an 11% rise in enrolment for black students and a 13% increase for Hispanic students.

Because of results like these, some DEI opponents have accused universities of flouting the court’s ruling.

But another explanation offered for the increase in diversity at some universities is a shift towards “socio-economic inclusion” instead of race and ethnicity – which nonetheless appears to have achieved the same objective.

Dartmouth University’s Hispanic student enrolment jumped from 9.7% to 12.7% last year, after adjusting to make the school “more accessible for low- and middle-income families”, it said in a press release.

It’s clear that the anti-DEI campaigns are having a significant real-world impact. “I think we are in the midst of a big shift,” says Mrs Chilazi.

Michelle Jolivet, author of Is DEI Dead?: The Rebranding of Inclusive Organizations, says she is worried that the anti-DEI movement will lead to progress stalling for historically disadvantaged groups.

“Things that matter are measured, and when you stop measuring them, they stop happening,” she says. “Then you do stop making progress.”

But as to the question at the centre of her book – is DEI dead? – Jolivet says the answer is no.

The companies that appear to have cancelled their DEI programmes are not really eliminating them, she says. Instead, they are just rebranding and reorganising to escape potential lawsuits.

She gave the example of Walmart renaming its chief diversity officer to chief belonging officer. Similarly, McDonald’s gave one of its programmes a facelift, changing the name of its Global DEI Center of Excellence to the Global Inclusion Team.

“DEI has become more of a controversial word,” she says. “If I just take that word out, I can still do the same thing.”

But not everyone is reassured.

Back in the fields of Union County, Elise Ashby looks towards the future with uncertainty. The grant from Walmart gave her access to capital that she argues black-owned businesses often struggle to obtain.

She fears a return to when she “stayed up nights” wondering where the next cheque would come from and facing the kind of obstacles “white men don’t have”.

She says: “Am I concerned about the future? Absolutely.”

Additional reporting by Natalie Sherman

Top image credit: Getty Images

BBC InDepth is the home on the website and app for the best analysis, with fresh perspectives that challenge assumptions and deep reporting on the biggest issues of the day. And we showcase thought-provoking content from across BBC Sounds and iPlayer too. You can send us your feedback on the InDepth section by clicking on the button below.