NHS targets and worst traffic jams

Hello. Here’s your morning briefing:

NHS hospital performance slumps across the UK

After analysing the data for each of the country’s four nations, it can be seen that the health services in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have failed to hit one of their three key targets in the past 18 months. Scotland hit its A&E target three times in the past 12 months.

Figures show patients are now twice as likely to wait longer than four hours in casualty than they were four years ago.

The proportion of people waiting more than 62 days for cancer treatment has risen by a third in the past four years. Nearly one in five patients now wait longer.

Ministers say most patients across the UK are still being seen in time, but British Medical Association chair Dr Chaand Nagpaul said the situation highlighted by the BBC was “unacceptable”.

MPs to debate Universal Credit expansion

After Brexit, one of this Parliament’s hottest issues is the government’s rollout of Universal Credit, which combines six separate benefits into one.

On Wednesday, MPs will debate the programme, amid concerns over reported delays of up to six weeks in getting payments to claimants, a situation which senior Labour backbencher Frank Field has said is causing some people to be “pushed towards destitution”.

Labour wants the rollout to be paused – the government plans to bring in Universal Credit at 50 job centres each month – and will use its debate to bring pressure on ministers.

A Commons vote on Universal Credit is not binding on the government, although it has been reported that about a dozen Conservative MPs want the scheme to be put on hold.

The Department for Work and Pensions said the system was working and the majority of recipients were telling them they were comfortable about managing their finances.

Game of Thrones star accuses Weinstein

Headey posted on Twitter to say that Weinstein had invited her to his room to show her a script.

She wrote how she told him in a lift that she was “not interested in anything other than work, please don’t think I got in here with you for any other reason, nothing is going to happen.'”

Headey claimed Weinstein was “furious” and walked her back to the lift.

Weinstein has been accused by other actresses of rape, sexual assault and harassment, but has “unequivocally denied” any allegations of non-consensual relationships.

UK’s worst traffic jams revealed

According to traffic analysts Inrix, drivers faced disruption for up to 15 hours last August following an oil spill, which also caused problems up to 36 miles away.

Experts say such incidents cost millions of pounds in wasted fuel and time.

The dubious honour of Britain’s worst motorway for jams goes to the M6, which had three of the top five tailbacks. Highways England says it clears 85% of incidents within an hour.

‘Go to the dentist and get fined £100’

By Sean Coughlan, education and family correspondent

Going to the dentist is something that many would want to avoid – but how about if you also faced a penalty fine?

More than 40,000 people a year in England are getting fines of £100 – from an automated system that dentists say is hitting the most vulnerable.

They warn that people such as dementia sufferers are unfairly getting caught up in a system meant to stop fraudsters from getting free treatment.

The fines, about £4m per year, are being applied by a random screening process that checks on whether people going to the dentist are really eligible for free treatment.

The NHS accepts there is a problem with errors and is promising changes.

What the papers say

Several papers lead on warnings by the head of MI5, Andrew Parker, about the level of terrorist threat faced by the UK, and the role of technology giants in preventing the spread of information used by extremists. According to the i paper, Mr Parker said in a speech that he had never seen such a “high tempo” of bombings, shootings and stabbings in his 34-year service. The Daily Mail adds that the spy chief said while technological advances were “brilliant”, an “unintended side-effect is that these advances also aid the terrorists”. Elsewhere, the Daily Mirror reports on a pensions “timebomb”, with figures suggesting as many as 15 million people are not saving for their retirement. Many will have to keep working until their 80s, the paper adds.