Gordon Brown will announce today that the government is to spend an extra £1bn to lift 200,000 children out of poverty as he uses his final budget to help put Labour back on track to meet its target for alleviating deprivation among the young.
http://business.guardian.co.uk/budget2007/story/0,,2038983,00.html
More than 600,000 people a year applying for a passport for the first time will from May have to attend a compulsory interview up to 20 miles from their home, it was announced yesterday. The new applicants, half of whom will be aged 16 to 19, will be asked to prove their identity by responding to a stock of about 200 possible questions on their family and financial history.
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,,2038874,00.html
Householders who keep putting out their bins on the wrong day could be caught out by secret spy cameras hidden in tin cans and bricks and branded "envirocriminals". Ealing Council in west London is using the hidden cameras to catch people committing "major envirocrimes" such as graffiti and fly-tipping on main roads. However council tax payers who put out their bins on the wrong day could also be caught up in the push.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/03/21/nspy21.xml
Key Stage tests for children aged 7, 11 and 14 should be replaced with a system that randomly selects only some pupils to take the national curriculum papers, the Government's chief examinations watchdog will say today.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/education/article1545472.ece