Weapons including batons, tasers and a rifle have been lost or stolen from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and police forces across the UK over the past five years, The i Paper can reveal.
Thousands of electronic devices, including computers, laptops, memory sticks, tablets and hard drives, were also reported as missing by the MoD and 34 police forces across England, Scotland and Wales between 2021 and 2025.
A Colt Canada C8 assault rifle, among weapons used by the Special Air Service (SAS) and Special Boat Service (SBS) in close combat, went missing last year, according to data obtained by The i Paper through freedom of information laws.
Eurostar rival finally gets go ahead – everything we know
Incoming Eurostar rival Virgin Trains has been granted track access for new services between London and Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam in 2030.
It marks a step closer to ending Eurostar’s monopoly. The trainline has operated without competition for nearly 32 years.
Approval lasts for 10 years
- The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has given approval for Sir Richard Branson’s company to run up to 20 daily services through the Channel Tunnel between October 2030 to December 2040.
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Virgin Trains in Eurostar stations
- In October, Virgin Trains was told it could share Eurostar’s Temple Mills depot in east London.
- Temple Mills is the only depot that can be accessed from High Speed 1 – the line that runs between London and the tunnel.
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‘Still more work to do’
This is an important next step in bringing competition and growth to the market for international rail services, and we welcome the progress and London St Pancras High Speed have made. While there is still more work to do, we are supporting and the wider industry to grow international services.
Martin Jones, Deputy director of access and international
What next?
Despite just clearing a major regulatory hurdle, Virgin Trains has yet to secure access to other rail networks.
It must also obtain safety approvals from the ORR and relevant regulators in the EU before services start in 2030.
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The weather to expect for the rest of the summer
While temperatures are expected to drop this week after the UK’s fifth heatwave brought a record 38.1°C – it appears the relief will be only temporary.
Another heatwave is expected to descend on the UK next month, the Met Office has warned, after a month of unprecedented hot and dry conditions.
A September heatwave
The Met Office has predicted that there is a chance of a late-season heatwave developing in September as the UK moves into the meteorological autumn.
The forecaster said there was “a chance that late-season hot spells or heatwaves develop” in the south between 31 August and 14 September.
Northern areas to see ‘more changeable conditions’
The Met Office predicts “drier, more settled weather is slightly more likely towards the south and east. Temperatures are again likely to be near to or above average overall”.
While the south may see more heat, there will likely be “more changeable conditions” in the north and northwest of the country as autumn begins, the Met Office said.
Rain to fall after record dry July
Looking to the weekend, BBC Weather forecasts up to a 58 per cent chance of rain on Sunday, 23 August.
The following week could also see some rain, with BBC Weather predicting showers on Thursday, 28 August and Friday, 29 August – some respite after the driest July on record across England.
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Where does the Gaza peace deal stand?
US envoy Jared Kushner is in the Middle East today for talks with key figures, following a rare meeting with Hamas’s leader yesterday.
Last month, Donald Trump’s Board of Peace said it had reached an agreement for the “complete disarmament” of Hamas and other armed groups in Gaza.
Here’s what you need to know.
Israel rejects Gaza peace plan
Hamas deal
Trump said Hamas had agreed to disarm if Israel withdraws its forces from Gaza. Israel rejected the 15-point plan, which calls for Gaza to be rebuilt under a new civilian Palestinian administration.
The Hamas deal breakthrough came nine months after a US-brokered ceasefire was signed, with negotiations between Israel and Hamas largely deadlocked since then.
US envoy to meet Netanyahu
Netanyahu rejects plan
The Israeli PM said his military would not withdraw from Gaza, warning there would never be a Palestinian state in Gaza under his leadership.
US envoy in Middle East
Trump’s envoy Jared Kushner is expected to meet Netanyahu today to discuss the US-backed Gaza plan. He met with with Hamas leader Khalil al Hayya yesterday.
What happens next?
Eight Muslim countries issued a statement on Sunday condemning Israel’s rejection.
While it’s not yet clear whether Kushner’s talks will be successful, one topic at the heart of discussions will be the disarmament process.
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Why average house price plunged by £7,360 in August
Average house prices nosedived by more than £7,000 this month- marking the biggest August price fall since 2018, according to new figures.
Property site Rightmove said asking prices fell by 2 per cent, or £7,360 month-on-month.
Rightmove downgrades annual house price projections
While prices usually fall in August, this is a much bigger drop than the 10-year average of 1.3 per cent.
The figures prompted Rightmove to downgrade its annual house price forecast for 2026 from a 2 per cent increase to between 0 and a 2 per cent fall.
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What is influencing the figures?
The average asking price for a home in Britain stood at £364,999 in August – 1 per cent lower than a year ago.
And it’s all down to the supply.
- The number of available homes for sale is at a 12-year high for this time of year.
- This, combined with the quiet summer holiday period, has led to lower price expectations from sellers.
- Colleen Babcock, a property expert at Rightmove, said the larger-than-usual price drop is a sign sellers are pricing much more competitively from the offset.
- “Buyers have the widest choice of homes for sale at this time of year in more than a decade, so standing out on price for the right reasons is hugely important,” she said.
A regional divide in property prices
But not everywhere is experiencing a dampening in property prices – as usual, there is a regional divide, Rightmove said.
In the North West of England, average asking prices are up by 1.9 per cent annually, beating out homes in London where prices have sunk by 3.1 per cent on average.
- The depressed figures follow a “mini bounce” in buyer demand since Andy Burnham became PM.
- Buying activity, however, remains roughly 10 per cent below 2025 levels due to the changing picture for mortgage rates, geopolitical uncertainty and October’s Budget spooking potential buyers.
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Everything you need to know about Reform’s welfare overhaul
Reform UK is preparing to unveil the biggest shake-up of the welfare system “in a generation”, with plans to abolish personal independence payments (PIP) for working-age adults and save an estimated £50bn a year.
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‘We will not pretend this is painless’
Nearly three million people would see their disability or sickness payments withdrawn or changed under the plans.
The party’s treasury spokesman, Robert Jenrick, set out the proposals in an article for , ahead of a full 50-page policy paper due on Monday. He has acknowledged the human cost directly, writing: “We will not pretend this is painless.”
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What is Reform proposing?
- Reform would scrap PIP and the health element of universal credit for working-age adults. Both would be replaced with a new “health security allowance”, a single, regularly reviewed payment.
- Only claimants with “severe, enduring and high-risk” conditions would qualify for that cash support.
- Everyone else currently receiving disability-related payments would lose their cash entitlement altogether.
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A closer look at the detail
Those who would lose access to payments would instead be supported through council-run disability support accounts.
Reform estimates that 2.16 million would keep their present cash entitlement in full, while 2.89 million would see theirs modified or withdrawn.
Child payments impacted
- The party plans to extend the same approach to children’s benefits, aligning the system for anxiety, depression and ADHD with the adult changes, though only for new claimants.
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Plans modelled on Dutch system
Reform would also place a new obligation on businesses with more than five staff to take out “return to work cover” insurance, which would pay for the cost of an employee’s first two years off sick, rather than the state covering that cost through benefits.
The scheme is modelled on the Dutch system, where Reform argues disability benefit applications fell by 40 per cent after similar reforms were introduced.
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Scientists hail malaria breakthrough – what we know
A new compound has been hailed “an exciting step forward” in the fight against malaria – which kills hundreds of thousands of people each year.
Researchers at the University of Dundee, who discovered the compound, say it has the potential to simplify dosing regimens for the treatment and prevention of the illness.
A ‘novel drug-like molecule’
The new compound, called cabamiquine, is described as a “novel drug-like molecule” that can be delivered in a single dose.
An early-stage clinical trial showed that when administered with a commonly used antimalarial drug called pyronaridine, it is both effective and has a favourable safety profile in adults and adolescents.
Larger trials on the horizon
The team said the findings support the development of the combination therapy for larger trials and children.
In 2024, there were an estimated 282 million cases of malaria and 610,000 deaths from the disease worldwide. Figures have been rising in part due to resistance to common malaria medicines.
An ‘exciting step forward’
This is an exciting step forward for a compound which has great potential to simplify dosing regimens for , a disease which causes hundreds of thousands of deaths every year. We are delighted to see how the compound… is progressing into a potential medicine.
Dr Beatriz Baragana, a member of the Dundee University team that discovered cabamiquine
Survival packs, a £239 washing machine, eight helmets, 80 bullets, three body armour plates and “large missile cases” were also reported as lost or stolen from various locations last year.
An MoD spokesperson said the department takes the “security of defence assets extremely seriously”.
When MoD assets are reported as lost or missing due to suspected criminal activity, the MoD takes “the necessary steps to investigate, prosecute and recover the items”, the spokesperson added.
According to the data, 787 devices – mainly laptops – were lost by police forces last year, down from 1,436 missing items in 2024.
Overall, more than 5,000 UK Government and public sector weapons, ammunition and devices went missing between 2021 and 2025.
Authorities point to tools like device encryption as a safeguard against data exposure, but experts warn that lost hardware raises the risk of a cyber attack or other security breach.
Tasers, bullets and explosives ‘go missing’
The Metropolitan Police and Humberside Police recorded 26 units of cartridges and rounds as missing, while Leicestershire Police said weapons or explosive munitions had been recorded as missing between 2022 and 2025 on five occasions, without providing further detail.
Surrey Police recorded 23 police batons as missing in 2024, and a further 8 in 2025.
Of the 4,413 technological devices reported as lost or stolen by police forces over the five-year period, at least 107 were recovered, but the vast majority remained missing.
A Met Police spokesperson said it takes the “security of police equipment and information extremely seriously”, adding that it has “robust procedures in place to minimise the risk of loss or theft”.
They added that electronic devices are “protected by a range of security measures, including encryption and access controls”, adding that any report of missing or stolen equipment is reviewed and, if needed, investigated.
Over the same period, some 1,300 laptops, computers and memory sticks have been recorded as lost or stolen from the MoD, of which at least 44 have been recovered.
The department said that more than 300 of the devices were lost between January 2025 and April this year.
Lost devices ‘behind real breaches’
Alan Woodward, a professor at the University of Surrey specialising in cyber security, told The i Paper that institutions like the police and armed forces treat lost and stolen devices “as background noise” but he warned: “Nationally the data shows that lost devices in the public sector – not just MoD – are behind a meaningful share of real breaches so these figures need to be acted upon.”
One notable example includes a laptop stolen from a Royal Navy recruiting officer’s vehicle in 2008, which contained the details of 600,000 people. According to a statement delivered by then defence secretary Des Browne, the majority of data belonged to people who had “expressed an interest in joining the Royal Navy, the Royal Marines or the Royal Air Force”.
He told MPs that in some cases, the data included “no more than a name”, but “for about 153,000 people who progressed as far as submitting an application form to join the forces, more extensive personal data are held, including passport details, national insurance numbers, driver’s licence details, family details, doctors’ addresses and national health service numbers; for about 3,700 people, banking details were also included”.
In 2018, an unencrypted USB stick belonging to a Heathrow Airport worker was found on a West London street, revealing sensitive security files including details of routes and safeguards for Cabinet ministers, foreign dignitaries and Queen Elizabeth II.
Glasgow City Council was fined £150,000 in 2013 for the loss of two unencrypted laptops, one of which contained personal details of more than 20,000 people.
Tristan Caulfield, associate professor in the Information Security Group at University College London’s Department of Computer Science, said the impact of someone accessing sensitive information on lost devices “could be significant,” but stressed that the probability of that happening is probably extremely low, meaning the overall risk is probably low.
He added: “While it’s possible to defeat some methods of device encryption by attacking the hardware, doing so requires a high level of sophistication.”
Caulfield suggested the MoD “probably has a very good security culture due to the nature of the organisation and the individuals who work there probably have a strong understanding of the importance of acting securely, meaning most device losses will be reported.
“If there was any sensitive information on a lost device they would be able to act to mitigate the impact,” he added.
An MoD spokesperson said: “If any assets are reported lost or missing due to suspected criminal activity, we take the necessary steps to investigate, prosecute and recover the items.”
A Met Police spokesperson said the number of lost or stolen electronic items has declined significantly since 2024.
“Any report of missing or stolen equipment is subject to review and/or investigation. We continually review our procedures to help prevent future losses and maintain public confidence,” they added.
A spokesperson for the City of London Police said: “As part of an IT upgrade last year, officers and staff were issued new laptops; we are in the process of reclaiming any obsolete laptops which have not yet been returned. These devices are encrypted and can no longer access City of London Police networks.”
A Police Scotland spokesperson said the force takes the “protection of all information assets extremely seriously and comply with the National Policing Information Systems Community Security Policy (CSP) which ensures security standards are maintained”.
The spokesperson said the force has a “range of measures in place to reduce the risk of incidents occurring, and we provide police officers and staff with ongoing training and guidance to support them to avoid data breaches, security incidents and lost or stolen devices”.