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BBC Radio 4

News-making original journalism documentary series, investigating stories at home and abroad.

File on 4

The BBC's religion editor Aleem Maqbool hears from sexual abuse victims who say they were let down by senior church leaders for decades. Priest David Tudor was allowed to continue working within the Church of England - despite widespread concerns about his behaviour. Now there are calls for the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell to resign over his handling of the case. He is due to take temporary charge of the church in the New Year following the resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby. The Church of England says File on 4's investigation into the case of David Tudor has 'revealed a catalogue of past safeguarding decisions, that allowed someone who was considered a risk in the 1980s to return to ministry in the 1990s.' This, they say, should never have happened.

Reporter: Aleem Maqbool
Producers: Steve Swann and Hayley Mortimer
Technical producer: Craig Boardman
Production coordinator: Tim Fernley
Editor: Carl Johnston

The abuse survivors calling on archbishop of York to resign

Michael Buchanan examines why the University Hospitals Sussex NHS trust, once considered one of England’s best, has now got the largest number of patients waiting over 18 months for treatment. On top of this there is a growing police investigation into allegations of poor care.

Rporter: Michael Buchanan
Producer: Charlotte Rowles
Technical Producer: Richard Hannaford
Production Coordinator: Tim Fernley 
Editor: Richard Vadon

Bad Medicine: Inside the hospital trust at centre of a police investigation

Tens of thousands of children and young people across the UK suffer from severe forms of epilepsy which are resistant to treatment.
For those with intractable epilepsy the options for treatment are limited and the risk of a catastrophic seizure is very real. 
But a growing body of evidence has pointed to cannabis having a positive effect on preventing seizures even in people who don't respond to other drugs. 
In 2018, medicinal cannabis was legalised following a high profile campaign led by parents of children with intractable epilepsy. 
They hoped the change in the law would lead to the drug becoming widely available on the NHS.
But more than six years later File on 4 Investigates has discovered families going to extreme lengths to access a drug they say is keeping their children alive. 
Reporter Alastair Fee meets families who claim they have been forced to give their children illegal cannabis sourced online and follows others who regularly break the law importing medicine from the Netherlands.

Cannabis Kids: The parents breaking the law to help their children with epilepsy

With the billions he made at the expense of Russian taxpayers, Roman Abramovich bought six luxury superyachts over the years. Among them were the 162-metre-long Eclipse, with swimming pools, helipads and a missile defence system - and the Pelorus - sometimes lent to Chelsea footballers.

They could each cost up to one and a half million dollars just to re-fuel. If they’d been declared as being for his own personal use, VAT would have been payable on costs like that. Instead, for more than a decade, tax authorities were led to believe the superyachts were being rented out to commercial customers.
 
Financial investigations correspondent Andy Verity working with The Bureau of Investigative Journalism and The Guardian discovers that the firms renting the boats ultimately belonged to a trust held by - Roman Abramovich. Under the scheme devised for him, the sanctioned oligarch was hiring out his superyachts - to himself. Mr Abramovich has denied either directing or knowing of any deception.

Reporter: Andy Verity
Producer: Paul Grant
Editor: Richard Vadon

Abramovich, the Yachts and the Tax Dodge

The planned withdrawal of British and other foreign troops from Afghanistan relies on the Afghan army and police to take over security duties.
Since 2002, the USA has spent $27bn - over half of its total reconstruction fund - training and equipping Afghan forces. The aim is to build up an army of 171,600 people and a police force of 134,000 by October 2011.
The Afghan President Hamid Karzai wants national forces to be in complete control of the country by 2014.
But these targets, and the loyalty of some personnel, are called into question by recent killings carried out by members of the Afghan security forces: 
*20 July 2010: two US weapons trainers were shot dead by an Afghan soldier
*13 July 2010: three British soldiers were attacked by an Afghan soldier who shot one dead in his bed and fired a rocket-propelled grenade which killed two others
*3 November 2009: three British soldiers and two members of the Royal Military Police were shot dead by an Afghan policeman.
An investigation published in June 2010 by the US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction found that officials had often overstated the readiness of Afghan forces, rating some units as first class when they were incapable of fighting the Taliban on their own. It also reported high levels of desertion, corruption and drug abuse.
Gerry Northam asks if the transition to Afghan control is really on track. 

Producer: David Lewis Editor: David Ross.

Afghanistan: Enemies Within

Do Insolvency Practitioners measure up to the high standards expected of them when they are called in to a stricken business? Allan Urry examines concerns that some IP's don't always act in the best interests of creditors who are owed money when companies fail. Are landlords right to complain they've been getting a raw deal because some corporate undertakers side too much with their retail paymasters, who are pushing for reduced rents because their businesses are in trouble. 

The Office of Fair Trading is calling for far reaching reforms amid concerns about high fees and low recovery rates for some creditors. So is there proper oversight of a profession which takes a billion pounds in fees each year, but isn't subjected to much public scrutiny? 

PRODUCER: Paul Grant.

Insolvency Practitioners: A Corporate Killing

The drive to make acute hospitals more prudent and independent through foundation trust status was meant to usher in a new era of prudent spending for the whole of the NHS. 

But now the process is faltering, as a series of foundation trusts hit grave financial, managerial or care quality problems. 

And though the NHS was meant to be ring-fenced from the deep cuts now hitting the rest of the public sector, a number foundation hospital trusts are facing bed closures and serious job losses. 

In some cases emergency measures have been adopted to turn failing trusts around by bringing in highly paid crisis managers. But these have alienated staff and unions and seemingly pushed some hospitals further into the red. 

So where does this leave the Government's plans for all hospitals to be run by foundation trusts? Julian O'Halloran reports.

Producer: Ian Muir-Cochrane.

Foundation Hospitals: An Acute Crisis?

While the government axes public spending to try to cut the deficit, Michael Robinson investigates loopholes which let big businesses slash their UK tax bills.
This month George Osborne said he plans to make Britain the most attractive corporate tax regime in the G20. But some companies have already moved abroad for tax reasons. And for others able to operate on a global scale, there are many ways for them to reduce their tax liability. So how does the Government square the tax circle? 
Producer: Gail Champion.

A Taxing Dilemma

Jenny Cuffe investigates how British-based Somalis are being lured into fighting for the al-Qaeda-linked Islamists of al-Shabaab.

There have been consistent rumours that dozens, perhaps scores of British-based Somali men have travelled to Somalia to join the militant Islamist group which was banned by the British Government earlier this year. 

In September the rumours were given new urgency when the Director of MI5, Jonathan Evans, warned it was only a matter of time before the UK suffered an act of terrorism committed by al-Shabaab-trained Britons.

File on 4 explores the techniques used by Al-Shabaab to persuade young members of the 250,000-strong British Somali community to sign up for Jihad in Somalia. Members of the close-knit and reticent British Somali community tell Jenny Cuffe of their fears that youngsters are being seduced through the internet and by shadowy recruiting sergeants for the Horn of Africa's most feared military force. 

And the programme travels to the state of Minnesota to see how a vigorous FBI investigation and cooperation from the Somali community have laid-bare a pipeline which first lured, then transported young American Somalis to the training camps and battlefields of Somalia. 

 Producer: Andy Denwood.

The Somali Connection

Under the Prime Minister's project for The Big Society, the coalition government wants charities to have much greater involvement in the running of public services.
At the same time, substantial cuts are expected in official regulators which check that charities are competent and honest.
Recent financial scandals have shown the vulnerability of even the most prestigious organisations to systematic fraud.
The Charity Commission admits that a quarter of charities fail to file their accounts on time, covering a combined annual income of £6 billion. The Commission also says that in future allegations of fraud may no longer be automatically investigated. 
Meanwhile, other national charities are facing rebellions from lifelong local supporters over planned reorganisations designed to win huge public contracts.
Gerry Northam asks if we can be confident that charities are fit and honest enough to take responsibility from the public sector.
Producer: Sally Chesworth.

Charities - Giving and Taking

A series of scandals involving babies and mothers being harmed in hospital have shaken some people’s confidence in NHS maternity care. As a result, many women are looking for alternatives when they give birth. Some are seeking help from outside of the NHS; including paying independent midwives, and even ‘freebirthing’, where they receive no medical support at all. But how safe is this, and is more regulation needed?
Presenters: Rachel Stonehouse and Matthew Hill
Producer: Fergus Hewison
Production co-ordinator: Tim Fernley
Technical producer: Richard Hannaford
Editor: Carl Johnson

The Labour Market: Women who have babies outside the NHS

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