The licence fee could be axed and replaced by an £11-a-month internet levy – and viewers invited to become “BBC members” – under radical proposals to reform the corporation being considered by the Government.
A charge added to broadband bills, which would be nearly £50 cheaper than the current £180 licence fee, is the long-term solution for funding the BBC drawn up by the Social Market Foundation (SMF), a cross-party think-tank which is influential with ministers.
The proposals will be among the options considered by ministers as part of the Government’s ongoing Charter review into the future of the BBC.
How bereavement leave is changing
From April next year, employees’ entitlement to unpaid time off work after suffering a bereavement will extend to step and half relatives, as well as foster, kinship care and adoptive relationships.
A change in the law
The new legislation will include employees who lose a spouse, partner, parent, adult child or sibling. Those who suffer a bereavement will be entitled to up to two weeks’ unpaid leave.
- The Government had already confirmed the new rights will apply to parents who experience a miscarriage before 24 weeks of pregnancy.
What was previously covered
A legal right to unpaid leave for employees who had suffered a bereavement was only introduced under The Employment Rights Act of December 2025.
Before that, only parents who had lost a child under 18 or stillborn from 24 weeks had a legal right to bereavement leave.
5 min read
4 min read
Support for those grieving
No one should have to fight for time to grieve. These changes back people going through some of the hardest moments of life, whoever they are and wherever they work.
Minister for the Future of Work, Kate Dearden
Why babies infected in the womb are ‘more likely to have autism’
Babies could be at a higher risk of autism and intellectual disability if they contract infections such as rubella and herpes in the womb, a new study has suggested.
What you need to know about the study
Researchers from Sweden’s Karolinska Institute analysed health records from 3.7 million people born between 1987 and 2021.
- 975 of these had been diagnosed with a so-called congenital “torch” infection – a group of parasitic, bacterial and viral diseases.
- Children known to have had one of these before birth were around three times more likely to be diagnosed with autism, and seven times more likely to have an intellectual disability.
- The researchers also found that those who had been infected, but had neither of these tended to have slightly lower school grades at 16.
Family circumstances not a factor
To check whether genetics or family circumstances might have affected the result, the researchers compared the affected children with siblings who had not contracted a congenital infection, but the associations with autism and intellectual disability remained.
4 min read
7 min read
A low chance of infection
Experts emphasised that infections are very rare, occurring in only around 2.5 per 10,000 births.
- The authors said the study strengthened the case for vaccination and other measures that stop infections being passed on to the foetus.
Limitations to the study
- The observational study cannot prove that the infections caused autism.
- It also relied on clinically diagnosed congenital infections, meaning that milder or symptom-free infections could have been missed.
Why CNN thinks it can sue its way back into White House
After reporters from CNN, MS Now and were denied entry to the White House, the media organisations headed for the courts to get their access back.
The rest of the media suspended some coverage of Donald Trump in sympathy, but he has not backed down, setting up his own “Trump TV” live channel.
What happened?
Mid-afternoon Friday, DC time, Trump officially banned CNN, MS Now and from the White House, explaining it was “a result of their constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS!”
He threatened that “Other Fake News Media Outlets [are] to follow”, adding “[t]here’s something wrong with a country that can allow people to write purposely negative stories”.
Why might ban be illegal?
The media companies’ legal argument rests on three grounds: that the ban did not follow “due process” such as allowing notice; that it violates a constitutional right to free speech and that it also violates free speech by denying access to a “non-public forum” (the White House).
- Washington DC’s district court judge Timothy Kelly ordered that the defendants file a response the next day, with a hearing set for Wednesday.
What did Trump say?
Trump claimed to have “expected” the lawsuit, and again attacked the media organisations, saying the Oval Office “should be treated with Decorum, Respect, and Dignity, not defiled by Third Rate Clowns”.
But he seemed to anticipate being ruled against in the court, saying “we’ll go for appeal”.
3 min read
5 min read
What does the law say?
Timothy Kelly previously ruled on a similar case. In 2018, he ordered that a CNN reporter should get his White House press pass back after he was banned following a contentious exchange with the President.
Experts note that because a system has been created that allows journalists access to parts of the White House, courts have placed limits on how access can be withdrawn.
But, an appellate court previously ruled that presidents retain substantial authority over who they allow into limited-access settings.
Are other media taking sides?
- Major US television outlets agreed to suspend some video coverage of Trump, in a demonstration of solidarity with the banned channels.
- No broadcaster covered the ribbon-cutting for the White House’s new helipad, and the President’s remarks were inaudible on a hastily-arranged live stream.
- Media organisations also joined in a boycott of the photographic pool at the White House.
- There was normal media coverage for the President’s visit to meet New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who said he had told Trump that all members of the press would be present.
Analysis reveals why Kent meningitis outbreak was so severe
Scientists have revealed what made the bacteria behind a deadly meningitis B outbreak in Kent in March particularly dangerous.
The context
Twenty-one people were diagnosed with invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) in a week, in the outbreak which was linked to a nightclub in Canterbury.
Two teenagers died and nine required intensive care.
3 min read
3 min read
Why it was so dangerous
Experts from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and University of Oxford found that the bacteria underwent a process called horizontal gene transfer – where it picked up small pieces of DNA from other bacteria.
This means the bacteria can borrow genetic traits without reproducing and changes how it interacts with human cells. The change made it particularly effective at causing severe illness and may have affected how the immune system recognised it.
How the UK is trying to prevent future outbreaks
Following the Kent outbreak, a one-off menB vaccination programme was launched as universities start again.
What else is being done?
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has also recommended that teenagers be offered the jab on the NHS at the age of 15.
2 min read
4 min read
How PIP claims for ADHD are rising for teens in richer areas
The number of 16- to 17-year-olds claiming personal independence payment (PIP) for ADHD and autism has more than tripled in richer areas over six years, according to analysis by the Nuffield Trust.
What is PIP for?
PIP is the main benefit paid to people who have a long-term physical or mental health condition or disability and is intended to help with everyday tasks and living costs.
According to government statistics from July, there were 4.1 million claimants entitled to PIP in England and Wales.
5 min read
4 min read
A closer look at the figures
While the amount of teenagers claiming PIP in deprived areas is higher, the number has grown at a slower rate, from 2.1 per cent in 2019 to 5.1 per cent last year.
This compares to a rise from 0.8 per cent to 2.5 per cent for teenagers from the least-deprived neighbourhoods.
- The think-tank also found that PIP recipient rates for ADHD and autism for white people were higher overall than those of other ethnicities.
The new claims about Lucy Letby – and what it means for appeal
Lucy Letby has failed – twice – to get judges to overturn her convictions for murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven more. However, fresh claims that her prosecution is a major miscarriage of justice have been made in the new documentary, Lucy Letby – Scapegoat?, a collaboration between and Channel 5.
A doctor who worked alongside Letby at the Countess of Chester Hospital says he believes the evidence used to convict her is “extremely poor” and that there was no killer on the neonatal unit, saying instead she was a “scapegoat” used by hospital bosses to cover up the unit’s poor performance.
- Individual failings and sub-optimal care at the hospital were discussed at length during both of Letby’s trials, but prosecutors insisted they did not explain the deaths.
Some details ‘not shared with jury’
The documentary claims there was a set of results relating to a baby who was poisoned by Letby that were not shared with the jury.
- Letby was convicted of attempting to murder two babies by secretly injecting insulin into IV bags which were being used to treat them.
- During the trial, jurors were told how a blood result for Baby F pointed to insulin coming from an external source rather than being produced by the body.
- now claims that there were a further 14 glucose readings which were “normal” at the time Baby F was poisoned but that this evidence was not shown to the jury.
- Retired detective Stuart Clifton, who investigated killer nurse Beverley Allitt, said the result should offer “clear grounds for appeal”.
Baby died ‘after Letby left the unit’
A mother has said her baby suddenly collapsed at the hospital and later died, six months after Letby was taken off the unit.
The statistics around the unusual number of collapses and deaths at the Countess of Chester between 2015 and 2016 were a key part of the prosecution case.
There were a total of 12 deaths from 2010-14 and then eight in 2015. Since Letby left the unit in July 2016, there has only been one.
3 min read
5 min read
Expert questions method of alleged murders
One of the methods by which Letby was said to have murdered babies was injecting them with air to cause an air embolism.
However, vascular surgeon Dr Colin Ferguson told : “The fact that in no case was air found in the heart at post-mortem means that this is just not true.”
Following her retrial, Letby was convicted of attempting to murder a baby by removing her breathing tube.
- Senior doctor Ravi Jayaram claimed that he walked in to find Baby K having collapsed with Letby standing over her cot doing nothing.
- However the documentary obtained a contemporaneous email written by Jayaram which said that Letby called him for help.
- The discrepancy over whether Jayaram went in because he was worried or because Letby called him for help was highlighted in the Thirlwall public inquiry into her case.
What happens now?
Letby remains in prison and her only avenue to clear her name is an application to the miscarriages of justice watchdog the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC).
The CCRC is currently considering her application but there is no timeline as to when it will decide whether it believes Letby’s case should be referred back to the Court of Appeal or not. Only a fraction of all applications submitted are successful.
4 min read
3 min read
As well as an overhaul of funding, the SMF said the BBC should become a John Lewis-style mutual society. Under the proposals, BBC “members” would get the opportunity to join a special council which would hold corporation bosses accountable for their decisions.
The licence fee is becoming increasingly unsustainable, with 3.7m households claiming not to need one because they don’t watch live TV. Half a million households stopped paying last year alone, forcing the BBC to find £500m in cuts.
The report, which is understood to have been discussed with advisers to Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, warns that the BBC would have to axe and Sir David Attenborough’s if the corporation’s public funding is slashed.
‘Home Internet Levy’ fairest solution
A “home internet levy” was the fairest method of funding the BBC and the one most likely to command public consent, the report, commissioned by campaign organisation 38 Degrees, found.
This was because most households now have home internet access (95 per cent), paying an average of £31 a month.
“Internet in the home is increasingly the way that people receive video content, and video content drives a substantial share of internet usage,” the report said.
A BBC internet levy would cost £11 per month, which is an average increase of 35 per cent on the current cost of internet bills.
That would work out to £4 a month cheaper than the current licence fee, which costs £15 a month for those who pay it. Poorer households could also pay less than those signed up to high-speed broadband contracts, the report said.
Internet providers would be compensated for the cost of collecting the charge.
The other proposals for BBC future
The report, compiled using policy experts, also looked at other funding solutions.
This included keeping the licence fee, but adding a smaller “news and culture levy” of £2.30 onto internet bills.
Another proposal was for a £12 a month “household levy” – an idea favoured with the BBC.
But the SMF said this “could just look like expanding the licence fee to all households without concessions, irrespective of media consumption”.
Meanwhile, putting the cost of the licence fee onto subscriptions such as Netflix and Disney would add £6.25 a month to each, the report said.
However, this would equate to a 75 per cent rise in streaming subscription charges, meaning viewers could cancel packages and the BBC would have less money than anticipated, the report concluded.
Make BBC a ‘mutual’ society
The SMF also proposed radical changes to make the BBC more accountable to the public by becoming a “mutual-style membership” organisation. The idea has previously been backed by Nandy.
“Making British citizens members of the BBC would help to increase people’s sense of ownership over the organisation, amplify households’ voices in its governance, and add to the institutional barriers shielding the BBC from government interference,” the report said.
Members would be chosen by lottery to take part in a member council, where they would serve terms of up to three years and be paid for their time.
They would “hold the Board of the BBC to account, ensuring that the organisation is meeting its duties to the public”.
However, BBC members would not enjoy the same rights as John Lewis staff, who jointly own the whole business and share in its profits.
Under the proposals, the Council would also have no control over editorial decisions, hiring talent or decisions on programming.
Match of the Day axe fear
An Opinium poll of 2,050 people commissioned as part of the report found viewers were most concerned that , and Match of the Day could be axed if the BBC was “defunded”.
Reform UK has said it would end the licence fee if elected to government.
Veronica Hawking, Campaigns Director at 38 Degrees, said the report shows “how unthinkable it would be to the British public if the BBC was allowed to be decimated, as some politicians want”.
“The public tell us they want an independent BBC, protected by sustainable public funding. It’s vital the Government pay attention to the warnings in this report and ensure, in this year of the Charter review, that does not happen.”
The report found that up to 63 per cent of all content watched on the BBC would disappear if licence fee funding was withdrawn. Much of what’s left could go behind a paywall or to another streaming service.
The SMF estimated that 40 per cent of the BBC’s £411m drama budget would go if public funding was ended, whilst the £64m Arts & Music budget, used to support the BBC orchestras, back new music and stage the Proms, could dwindle to just £3m.
Jamie Gollings, Deputy Research Director at the Social Market Foundation and author of the report, said this would mean “thousands of jobs lost, and billions in GDP forsaken from the creative sector, a true British strength”.