Monday

Britain is to spend £500 million on heavily armoured vehicles to protect troops in Afghanistan. The decision comes after criticism of the Ministry of Defence by the families of servicemen killed while on patrol in lightly armoured 'Snatch' Land Rovers.

The cost of giving London's police officers free travel on the railways has risen to £24 million a year. The Metropolitan Police's 31,000 officers are allowed to travel up to 50 miles beyond London without having to buy a ticket, even when off duty.

Tuesday

Council tax bills would be frozen for two years under Conservative proposals to help middle-income families cope with the economic downturn, George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, told representatives at the party's conference.

One in every 15 Britons in their mid-eighties will live to be more than 100 years old as a result of improved nutrition, sanitation, housing and medical treatment, figures from the Office for National Statistics showed.

Wednesday

Thousands of parents will have to apply for their children's primary school places before the school's performance data is published. Problems with the marking of national tests has resulted in a three-month delay in the publication of league tables in England.

A report on mental health services for young people showed that children were being treated on adult psychiatric wards. The report by the Young Minds charity and Sir Al Aynsley-Green, the Children's Commissioner, also said services were so stretched that 72 per cent of inpatient referrals were refused — leading the young patients to be sent miles from home or to adult units.

Thursday

The Wakeham review reported that Britain's reputation in physics and astronomy had been damaged by the funding problems at the Science and Technology Facilities Council.

The Government called for the pharmaceutical industry to give the NHS price concessions on expensive treatments and for the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence to approve treatments for NHS use within six months — as against up to two years.

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