Summary

  • UK pilots take part in air strikes against Islamic State targets in Syria

  • New Lib Dem leader Tim Farron sets out his plans for the party

  • Michael Gove announces plans to improve education in prisons

  • MPs Tom Watson and David Davis win High Court battle over data retention

Live Reporting

Mario Cacciottolo and Brian Wheeler

  1. Friday's political round up

    This live page is almost done for the day. Here's a round up of the main political stories which made the news today: 

    • A fierce row has broken out over the revelation that UK pilots flew combat missions over Syria, despite a 2013 vote in the Commons against military action there. 
    • Justice Secretary Michael Gove has issued his vision for the future of prisons, which includes them being an environment where inmates have "earned release" for working on their education. He also suggested Britain's Victorian prisons could be closed. 
    • A planned social care cap, due to limit care costs for the over 65s and younger adults with disabilities to £72,000, will now be implemented in 2020, the government says. It had been due to be introduced next year. 
    • The government was defeated in the High Court by Tory MP David Davis and Labour backbencher Tom Watson, over laws which they say allow the police and security services to "spy on citizens" without proper safeguards. 

  2. Tax credit crackdown target 'missed'

    A US company hired to crack down on tax-credit fraud will fail to meet its £1bn target, the National Audit Office says.

    Synnex-Concentrix only generated savings of £500,000 in 2013-14 compared with the original estimate of £285m.

    It is now expected to deliver savings of £423m over three years, less than half the original target.

  3. CD copying law overturned

    BBC Newsbeat tweets...

  4. 'Crisis in care funding'

    Martin Green

    Prof Martin Green of Care England, which represents care providers, told the BBC News Channel the government had little option but to delay the cap. He says: 

    The local authorities aren't ready for it, I don't think there's much understanding from the general public about what it means, and there is also a real crisis in the care sector funding. The introduction of this new approach probably wouldn't have been sustainable with those issues. I hope what the government will do is use the fact they have paused this part of the care act to actually get to grips with the serious underfunding that there is in social care.

  5. Freedom of Information review begins

    A review of Freedom of Information laws has been launched , to examine whether current disclosure rules, in force since 2005, are working in the public interest.

    It comes amid concerns within government that "sensitive information" is being inadequately protected.

    But FOI campaigners say a desire for secrecy among ministers would conceal "bad decisions and policy mistakes".  

  6. Care cost cap delay 'shameful'

    Liz Kendall

    Liz Kendall, Labour's shadow minister for care and older people, describes reports that the care cost cap could be delayed until 2020 as "devastating" news for the elderly. 

    The Labour leadership candidate says: 

    This is a shameful broken promise from David Cameron, and devastating news for older people and their families who have been trying to plan for the future. Not only has he failed to tackle the crisis in social care, David Cameron is now going back on the already watered-down proposals to protect people from catastrophic costs of care at the end of their lives. The Tories owe people an apology for this latest failure to sort out social care."

  7. 'No indication' of rail crisis

    Sir David HigginsPA

    The former Network Rail boss, Sir David Higgins, tells the BBC there was "no indication of a crisis emerging" while he was running the company.

    Network Rail was recently forced to admit it cannot deliver three huge modernisation projects on time or on budget.

  8. Twist in Labour leadership tale

    BBC Newsnight tweets...

  9. Prison governors 'need autonomy'

    A prisoner in a cellPA

    Justice Secretary Michael Gove said earlier that society was collectively to blame for the failure to "redeem and rehabilitate" offenders, and called for an end to the "idleness and futility" of prison life. 

    Danny Kruger, chief executive of the criminal justice charity Only Connect says he is pleased with Mr Gove's aims - especially plans to give governors more independence. 

    The person who's nominally in charge of many of our prisons, they're not actually in charge, they would say that themselves, they don't run their own jails, because so much of the regime is determined by rules set in central government. And we need more independence and autonomy for the staff who run prisons and more responsibility on prisoners themselves."

  10. MH17 remembered

    Prime Minister David Cameron tweets...

  11. Fraud statistics

    BBC journalist tweets...

  12. 'Handful of British pilots'

    When asked if he was happy for British pilots to fly missions over Syria with allied forces in the future, without parliamentary approval, the defence secretary says:

    When we're going to run British military operations in Syria, including strikes, of course we've said we'll go to parliament for approval. This is different. This is a handful of British pilots who have been embedded with American forces and are part of an American military operation for which the Americans have full approval."

  13. Americans in Syria 'keep all of us safe'

    Michael Fallon says the Islamic State group must be be defeated in both Iraq and Syria, and that there is a "huge coalition effort going on" to try and achieve this.

    He adds: 

    We don't have at the moment parliamentary authority to carry out military strikes in Syria, but Americans do. And they have been and they've been doing this to keep all of us safe. There have been a handful of British pilots embedded but operating as part of American military operations. They have been operating as part of an American mission and not as a British mission."

  14. Fallon says embedded UK pilots 'standard practice'

    Michael Fallon

    Defence Secretary Michael Fallon has defended allowing UK pilots to fly missions over Syria with allied forces. 

    This is quite standard practice, has been for the last 50 or 60 years. We have personnel, including pilots, embedded with allied forces - the Americans, the French for example - and they will have their pilots integrated with our operations. There's nothing new about that."

  15. Green taxes 'to be cut'

    WindmillsReuters

    Green taxes - which push up energy bills - are to be cut further, the BBC has learnt. A cabinet source tells political correspondent Chris Mason that a "big reset" on subsidies paid by consumers is coming in the autumn. 

    "There is a hardening view in the Cabinet that we've got to deal with green subsidies," the source adds.  

    Read more on this story here

  16. Salmond 'not in favour of bombing Syria'

    Mr Salmond says it would be better to be cautious and have a more considered strategy with regard to military action in the Middle East. 

    Two years ago, the House of Commons was being asked to bomb different people from the one we're now being asked to bomb, because Syria is being engaged in a four-way civil war. It's hideously difficult to identify and understand who exactly should be being bombed. Therefore I'm not in favour of bombing action in Syria."

  17. Syria pilots a 'dramatic revelation'

    Mr Salmond also tells the BBC News Channel the news of the UK pilots flying bombing missions with US forces is a "dramatic revelation" which is "extremely concerning". 

    He adds: 

    What would have happened if one of these planes had been shot down and we'd lost a member of our armed forces in these operations?"

  18. Syria bombing 'inexcusable'

    Alex SalmondPA

    SNP foreign affairs spokesman Alex Salmond MP says allowing UK pilots to take part in coalition bombing missions in Syria, against so-called Islamic State, clearly flouts the democratic decision taken by the House of Commons two years ago.

    Mr Salmond adds: 

    And just as inexcusable, the Defence Secretary Michael Fallon led a Commons debate on Syria only this month - before which he briefed about the likelihood of the UK bombing in Syria in the future - yet he didn't say a word about UK military personnel already sent into action. "

  19. Coming up in politics

  20. Data investigation a 'tightrope'

    Rafi Azim-Khan, from international law firm Pillsbury, says he is not surprised that aspects of the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act have been ruled inconsistent with EU law.

    He adds:

    The fact the UK's attempt to toughen up and expand government's ability to look at citizen's data has just been shot down by the courts is not actually surprising, given the tightrope that is being walked. Amended laws will have to better reflect the existing EU rights and need for better justification and controls before private data can be accessed. We await the government's response with interest."