Hand transplants are to be carried out on the NHS in England, health officials have said.

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust will begin assessing suitable adult candidates and performing the "highly complex procedure" from April.

Hand transplants offer patients the only method of reconstruction that looks and functions like a normal hand.

If transplanted successfully, a new hand will be able to sense its surroundings and heal itself when hurt.

The patient will also be able to move it with dexterity and it will feel warm to the touch.

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Image source, Thinkstock

A group of doctors and health experts is urging the House of Lords to support a bill to lower the drink-driving limit across the whole of the UK.

They want England, Wales and Northern Ireland brought in line with Scotland.

The bill proposes amending the 1988 Road Traffic Act to lower the blood-alcohol concentration limit from 80mg alcohol per 100ml of blood to 50mg.

The government said the current limit struck a balance between safety and personal freedom.

The bill, which will be debated in the Lords on Friday, also proposes lowering the limits for alcohol in breath and urine when driving a vehicle.

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A senior Conservative official has quit his role overseeing the inquiry into bullying within the party, following an investigation by BBC Newsnight.

Newsnight had revealed key witnesses were reluctant to give evidence while Rob Semple was part of the process.

The inquiry was set up after the suicide of activist Elliott Johnson.

Mr Johnson's parents had called for Mr Semple to step down over his links with Mark Clarke, the man at the centre of many of the bullying allegations.

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Image source, BAE Systems

The Royal Navy's most modern warships are to be fitted with new engines because they keep breaking down.

In an email seen by the BBC, a serving Royal Navy officer wrote that "total electric failures are common" on its fleet of six £1bn Type 45 destroyers.

The Ministry of Defence said there were reliability issues with the propulsion system and work to fix it would be done to ensure "ships remain available".

One Royal Navy officer said the cost could reach tens of millions of pounds.

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Laura Kuenssberg
BBC political editor

BBC Political Editor Laura Kuenssberg said David Cameron is "close to the crunch" on a deal that would allow the UK to deny in-work benefits to people from other parts of the EU for up to four years.

But she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that if the "emergency brake" is all that other EU countries will agree to "then it's likely not to be enough" for EU sceptics or Number 10.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Image source, Getty Images

Conservative former minister NIck Herbert, who campaigned to keep Britain out of the euro, said the public wanted to see David Cameron achieve a practical proposal in Europe that tackles levels of net migration.

He said he hoped an "emergency brake" on in-work benefits would address "the unnatural draw" of migrants to the UK.

"The level of claim is very substantial," Mr Herbert, who leads Conservatives for Reform in Europe (CRE), told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"We have EU migrants topping up their salaries by half or more."  

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Eurosceptic former minister John Redwood has said the idea of an emergency brake on benefits is an "insult to the UK" and not a serious offer".  

Speaking on the Today programme, the Conservative MP said the plan being proposed as part of David Cameron's renegotiation of Britain's relationship with Europe fell "well short" of the need for Britain to regain control of its borders.  

He said Britain would have to beg other countries in certain circumstances to impose a temporary halt on benefits, a plan he dismissed as a "bad joke".   

He said the prime minister had "got do better than offer feeble emergency brake that won’t work". Mr Redwood said he believed the best answer is for Britain to leave the EU.

Commenting on the EU's offer to the UK of an "emergency brake" on immigration, Arron Banks, co-founder of Leave.EU, said: 

Good morning and welcome to Friday. We'll be hearing a lot about "emergency brakes" today as David Cameron continues his efforts to get a deal on his plan restrict in-work benefits for people from other parts of the EU for up to four years.

Friday sees what could be a crucial stage in David Cameron's EU negotiations, as he travels to Brussels for talks with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. Back at Westminster, the House of Lords will debate, external a Private Member's Bill to lower the drink-driving limit.

Earlier, the government scrapped a major reform of the legal aid system in England and Wales, and George Osborne postponed the sale of the government's final stake in Lloyds Banking Group.

Question Time and This Week are coming up later on BBC One, and can be watched on this page using the Live Coverage tab.

Image source, Getty Images

The widow of poisoned ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko has had a "helpful" meeting with the home secretary following the inquiry into her husband's death.

The meeting was "helpful, constructive and detailed" in addressing her concerns, Marina Litvinenko's lawyer Ben Emmerson QC said outside the Home Office on Thursday.

The private talks with Theresa May and Foreign Office minister David Lidington come a week after an official inquiry into Mr Litvinenko's death concluded that his killing was "probably approved" by Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Mr Litvinenko, a Russian dissident who became a British citizen, died aged 43 in November 2006, three weeks after he drank tea laced with polonium 210 at the Millennium Hotel in Mayfair, central London.

Read more: Who was Alexander Litvinenko?

Image source, ASCL

Head teachers' leader Brian Lightman is stepping down as general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders.

Mr Lightman has led the heads' union since 2010, through the era of the coalition government and into the present administration.

His deputy, Malcolm Trobe, will replace him as an interim general secretary.

Mr Trobe paid tribute to his predecessor's "unwavering commitment" to supporting head teachers.

A statement from the ASCL head teachers' union said he was leaving "with immediate effect to pursue other professional interests".

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Image source, Reuters

David Cameron says he is "pleased" others in Europe are bringing forward ideas to address the problem of the control of movement of people into the UK.

Asked about an emergency brake on migrants from the EU, Mr Cameron said:

  He went on to say:  

Allowing children under 15 to do paper rounds before school is "in principle contrary" to human rights law, says a European watchdog.

The European Committee on Social Rights (ECSR, external) says the hours UK children can work are "excessive".

Some local by-laws allow UK children as young as 13 to do "light work" like delivering newspapers or shop work.

But work considered light "ceases to be so if it is performed for an excessive duration", says the report, external.

UK law allows children to work up to 12 hours a week during term time, with a maximum of two hours on school days and Sundays.

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Image source, PA

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt was ordered by a judge to delete a "highly inappropriate" tweet he sent during a landmark manslaughter trial.

The minister posted a link to a news report of the Frances Cappuccini trial, saying it was a "tragic case from which huge lessons must be learned".

Mr Justice Coulson ordered the tweet be removed immediately.

Mrs Cappuccini died died after surgery following a Caesarean birth at Tunbridge Wells Hospital in Kent.

The tweet led the judge to bemoan there were "no professional lawyers" in the House of Commons.

Mr Hunt, Conservative MP for South West Surrey, tweeted his comment on the second day of the trial at the Inner London Crown Court.

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House of Commons
Parliament

Health Minister Alistair Burt wishes more debates about health could be like the one that has taken place this afternoon.

He argues that MPs should try "not to take the politics out of the issue, but the heat".

He suggest that all parties are guilty of producing "the most ridiculous" campaigning material that "in the cold light of day" they would regret.

In her valedictory speech, Baroness Williams attributed her decision to leave the House of Lords to her colleague, Lord Steel, who had introduced legislation to reform the Upper House and allow "somebody like me to retire".

To laughter, Lord Steel - whose Liberal party joined the SDP in the 1980s to become the Liberal Democrats - quipped: "It wasn't intended."

Lady Williams went on: "I have to say that at least it had the advantage of my not having actually lost my capacities entirely before I departed from the House of Lords."

Earlier, the peer hailed "the special genius of the UK" which was its "great public sector imagination".

She said the Open University, the BBC, the NHS were among the great institutions of the UK.

The World at One
BBC Radio 4

Immigration Minister James Brokenshire has said the number of child refugees that the UK will take in following the government's offer of sanctuary "will be guided by the UNHCR", who it has has asked for advice and information.

"I can't tell you the numbers today", he told World at One presenter Martha Kearney. 

Mr Brokenshire said further meetings between charities and local government in the UK would take place to assess capacity and how to make sure the children who come here are well supported.