Sandish Shoker
BBC News

The government must spell out how areas can get out of tier three, Labour MP for Leicester South Jon Ashworth has said.

The shadow health secretary said: "There are now parts of the country, like my own city Leicester, that have been under a form of lockdown for months and months and months, where families have been forced apart, where grandparents haven't seen their grandchildren.

"Those families will want to know what the exit strategy is and what voice they will have on that strategy."

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the latest tier announcements were part of an exit strategy.

He said: "It is to keep this virus suppressed with the minimum damage possible to the economy and indeed to education."

The government confirms Leicester and Leicestershire will move up to tier three when the national lockdown ends.

The measures will come into effect after the four-week national lockdown.

Amy Woodfield
BBC News

The MP for Rutland and Melton said she is pleased about the decision to put Rutland under tier two restrictions.

Alicia Kearns said: "I welcome that Rutland has been respected as the independent county it is and therefore tiered separately.

"I made daily representations over the last two weeks to ministers to ensure that Rutland would be separately tiered.

"I’m deeply disappointed that Melton and Harborough have been grouped with all of Leicestershire county.

Image source, Alicia Kearns

"Although our rates are above the national average, they are far below Leicester city."

Ms Kearns has urged residents to get tested for Covid and to follow the rules where they live.

She said: "If we get our rates down this will help me make the case to separate Melton from the rest of our county or at least Leicester city come 16 December."

Giles Taylor
BBC East Midlands Today reporter

Nottingham will be placed into tier three from Wednesday and of course the city has been here before.

After the students returned in September, Nottingham saw a massive increase in rates and was in fact the highest affected area in the country for some time.

Since then, the rates have been steadily falling and the hope was locally that they would avoid the worst restrictions this time round after lockdown but it appears that is not going to be the case.

Meanwhile, outside of the city, Nottinghamshire will also be going into tier three.

Again, rates have been steadily falling in recent weeks but they are still quite high in some parts of the county, particularly in the north.

Politicians there have been appealing for them to avoid the worst of the measures but this lunchtime it appears those appeals have fallen on deaf ears.

Sandish Shoker
BBC News

The leader of Derbyshire County Council, Barry Lewis, has said he is "disappointed" at the decision to place the county in tier three.

Mr Lewis, along with other council leaders, wrote to the Prime Minister yesterday urging him to consider placing Derbyshire in tier three in order to protect the economy and especially the hospitality and tourism sectors.

Following the announcement, he tweeted: "Disappointed for our tourism, hospitality, retail sectors and others who will be economically impacted before Xmas.

"Epidemiology tells us we’re in upper tier three and declining - in a few days we’d have been squarely tier two."

Image source, Barry Lewis

Sandish Shoker
BBC News

The Department for Health and Social Care said there had been improvements in some areas, but overall, case rates remained very high across the East Midlands. It provided the following figures:

• Derbyshire - 275 per 100,000 people and 220 per 100,000 in over 60s
• Leicestershire - 355 per 100,000 people and 250 per 100,000 in over 60s
• Nottinghamshire - 244 per 100,000 people and at 211 per 100,000 in over 60s

Image source, PA Media

The department said the pressures on the NHS in these areas remained high.

In Notttingamshire, it said the proportion of hospital beds taken up by Covid-19 patients in the county was still high but appeared to be falling.

It's better news in Rutland where the case rate is lower, at 125 per 100,000 and at 118 per 100,000 for the over 60s.

Two East Midlands MPs have voiced their concerns over the strict Covid measures being introduced across much of the region.

Toby Perkins, Labour MP for Chesterfield, called his area being put into tier three "disastrous" and a "nightmare".

He tweeted: "Matt Hancock celebrating that mass testing has helped Liverpool drive down the R rate and move into tier two. Exactly. That is what every area should have had for months."

High Peak's Conservative MP Robert Largan said he was "disappointed" all of Derbyshire was in tier three.

He said: "These restrictions will be reviewed every 14 days and if cases continue to come down then I hope that we can get restrictions eased as soon as possible."

Reacting to the news that Leicestershire will move into tier 3, the county's director of public health Mike Sandys said: "Over the past few days, rates have started to fall and we've made some progress. But it's important to put this into perspective.

"Figures are over 20% down compared to this time last week but they're still worse than the day we went into lockdown.

"Leicestershire's average is significantly higher than the national level so there is still work to do."

Image source, PA Media

Sandish Shoker
BBC News

Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced in Parliament the level of restrictions each county will face from next week.

"These actions are not easy but they are necessary," he said. "We have listened to the experts and used the best health advice."

He said they had looked not just at geographical areas to make the decisions, but also "human geography", as well as examining how the virus spreads.

The full list of restrictions by area can be found here, external.

"To keep people safe and to keep the gains that are being made, more areas than before will be in the top two tiers," added Mr Hancock.

"This is necessary to protect the NHS and keep the virus under control."

He said all areas in tier 3 would now be subject to a community testing programme, which was piloted in Liverpool, in order to help them bring cases down and move into tier 2.

Sandish Shoker
BBC News

The whole of Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire will be placed under the highest level of restrictions - Tier 3 - once the national lockdown ends on 2 December.

Rutland will go into Tier 2.

You can use the Government's postcode checker, external to find the restrictions for your area, though some people are experiencing technical difficulties

BBC Weather

Today will be a little chillier than recently with a frosty start.

However, it will be dry with any patchy fog gradually dispersing to leave periods of sunshine, staying dry and chilly into the evening.

Image source, Jo

The "notch" from the large knife was found embedded in part of Graham Snell's body, a court hears.

BBC Politics

The Conservative MP for Mid Derbyshire has said she won't support the government's new Covid tier system.

The government is set to announce tomorrow which areas will go into which set of restrictions, but Pauline Latham told the House of Commons the system is "totally illogical" and will force "too many people to stay holed up at home".

Announcing she would also not support Chancellor Rishi Sunak's statement on the government's Spending Review, she highlighted the impact on hospitality businesses, which she said "will fold in their tens of thousands".

Ms Latham - who also objected to plans to cut the overseas aid budget - did however praise Mr Sunak for "thinking outside of the box with brilliant innovative solutions" to the financial pressures brought about by the pandemic.

Image source, UK Parliament

Mr Sunak said the government planned to spend £280bn this year "to get our country through coronavirus" but added the "economic emergency" caused by Covid-19 had "only just begun".

PA Media

The case of convicted murderer Colin Pitchfork has been raised in Parliament ahead of a review on whether he can be released from prison.

Pitchfork was sentenced in 1988 to life imprisonment for the rape and murder of two 15-year-old girls in Leicestershire.

Lynda Mann was raped and strangled in Narborough on 21 November 1983, and three years later Dawn Ashworth was attacked in Enderby.

Pitchfork was denied parole in 2016 and in 2018, but was moved to an open prison three years ago.

Raising the issue during a Westminster Hall debate, South Leicestershire MP Alberto Costa said the Parole Board must have all resources necessary to arrive at a correct judgement, but said the murders "continue to live long in the memory of my constituents" and questioned any potential release.

Image source, Leicestershire Police

BBC Radio Nottingham

A Nottingham infectious diseases expert has said setting up specialist centres for mass Covid-19 vaccinations could be "difficult".

Keith Neal, an emeritus professor at the University of Nottingham, said there was a "potential risk of transmission" if centres were used - for example, on public transport.

However he added immunising care home residents and staff would be straightforward, if a vaccine was approved by regulators.

Local health bosses have provisionally scheduled 9 December as the start date for the mass roll-out of Covid-19 vaccinations in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire.

Image source, Getty Images

Janice Simons, who is on a zero-hour contract, applied for a support payment while self-isolating.

Nottinghamshire's Ben Duckett extends his contract with the county until 2023, after helping them win the T20 Blast.

East Midlands Today

A Leicestershire MP will hold a debate at Westminster this afternoon over the effectiveness and transparency of the Parole Board.

It comes ahead of an upcoming hearing for convicted murderer Colin Pitchfork, who will make a new bid for his release from custody.

Pitchfork was jailed for life in 1988 for the murders of two women in the county and was last refused parole in 2018.

He has been staying in an open prison since then and in accordance with the law, the Parole Board must review cases every two years.

Image source, Leicestershire Police

South Leicestershire MP Alberto Costa said many of his constituents still have concerns over Pitchfork's potential release.

"In most instances, the Parole Board is the final barrier between offenders and the wider public, and as a result, their responsibilities are of the upmost importance," he said.

"In previous years, the parole process has been a rather closed-off affair, however I am pleased that in recent times further changes have been made to allow victims and their families to have a greater say in the prospective release of offenders, and it has also allowed members of the public to be made aware of the rationale behind certain decisions."

Mr Costa said he hoped the debate would "shine a light" on the processes in place for high-profile, violent offenders and how they arrive at decisions.

The former MP and broadcaster said John Jones died from cancer earlier this month.