issing 15-year-old Faith Marley was caught on CCTV leaving a bus station in Glasgow with an unknown man, Police Scotland have said.
Faith, from the Leith area of Edinburgh, has not been seen since she travelled from the Scottish capital on a Citylink number 900 bus which arrived at Buchanan Bus Station in Glasgow shortly after 11.05am on Wednesday.
She was then spotted on CCTV meeting a man shortly after 11.20am before the pair left the bus station in the direction of North Hannover Street.
Police Scotland handout
Police said they remain “very concerned” for Faith, and are hoping to identify the man she was with to help them in their search.
Faith has been described as about 5ft 7ins, of medium build and has dark blonde shoulder-length hair.
She was wearing a black hooded top, leggings and black and white high-top converse shoes when she was last seen.
The man pictured with her has been described as white, with dark hair and is likely to be aged between 20 to 30, police said.
He was wearing a grey jumper, black trousers and black shoes and was seen pulling a white or silver case or box with a blue bag on top of the handle and carrying a dark-coloured backpack.
Chief Inspector Cath Thorburn said: “This sighting in Glasgow is now the most recent confirmed sighting of Faith.
“While nothing from our inquiries suggest she has come to any harm, she has not now been seen since Wednesday morning and we remain very concerned for her.
“We would urge anyone who believes they may have seen or heard from Faith at any time since Wednesday to get in touch urgently.
“We are working to identify the man seen in her company leaving Buchanan Bus Station as he may have information which could help. If you know who he is or if you recognise yourself please come forward.
“If you can help, please call us immediately on 101, quoting reference number 0385 of Wednesday, March 15, 2023.”
Khan, who had two large knives and a fake suicide belt, stabbed Cambridge graduates Jack Merritt, 25, and Saskia Jones, 23, and injured three other people before running on to London Bridge.
Mr Gallant, John Crilly, Darryn Frost and Lukasz Koczocik all feature on this year’s Civilian Gallantry list, the last to be approved by the late Queen, after stepping in to confront the attacker.
Ex-prisoner Mr Crilly hosed Khan with a fire extinguisher and communications manager Mr Frost jabbed at Khan with a narwhal tusk, sending him off balance.
Mr Gallant then tackled Khan to the ground, where all three restrained him until armed police arrived.
It came after Mr Koczocik used a long ceremonial pike taken from the walls of the Grade II-listed building to disarm Khan.
Mr Gallant, one of two men convicted of killing Barrie Jackson in Hull in 2005, had been allowed out on licence for the first time when the incident occurred.
They will each receive the Queen’s Gallantry Medal.
Prison officer Adam Roberts, who escorted Mr Gallant to the event on day release, also features on the list, having given first aid to Ms Jones after she was stabbed.
Mr Roberts told the PA news agency: “I feel sort of mixed, it’s very difficult to celebrate when it’s for something that had an outcome that was so bad.
“It finished with Saskia literally dying in front of me as we tried to keep her alive, so it’s really difficult to celebrate at all when my thoughts are with her.
“It’s really important that everybody who contributed is recognised in some way.”
Also, on the 15-person list is church bell ringer John Rees, 88, who was killed as he attempted to stop a mentally ill woman carrying out a knife attack in a Co-op store on May 5 2020.
He was stabbed and bludgeoned with two wine bottles and a fire extinguisher by schizophrenic Zara Radcliffe during the attack in Pen Y Graig, Rhondda, South Wales.
Lisa Way and Ayette Bounouri, who were in the shop at the time, have also been recognised for their roles in helping to confront Radcliffe.
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Oliver Dowden said: “We all hope we’d react with courage in the face of danger. These people have lived through that test, and responded in the most admirable way.
“Their selfless actions have saved lives, and I want to express profound thanks for their willingness to put themselves in danger to protect others.
“They are all extremely worthy winners of the final Civilian Gallantry awards of Her Majesty the late Queen.”
Peter Murrell, the Scottish National party’s chief executive and Nicola Sturgeon’s husband, has resigned with immediate effect.
Reports had suggested Murrell had been threatened with a vote of no confidence and told to resign by the end of Saturday.
It follows the departure of the SNP media chief Murray Foote, who left on Friday amid a row over the party’s membership numbers.
In a statement, Murrell said: “Responsibility for the SNP’s responses to media queries about our membership number lies with me as chief executive. While there was no intent to mislead, I accept that this has been the outcome. I have therefore decided to confirm my intention to step down as chief executive with immediate effect.
“I had not planned to confirm this decision until after the leadership election. However as my future has become a distraction from the campaign I have concluded that I should stand down now, so the party can focus fully on issues about Scotland’s future.
“The election contest is being run by the national secretary and I have had no role in it at any point.
“I am very proud of what has been achieved in my time as chief executive and of the part I have played in securing the electoral success the party has enjoyed over almost two decades.
“Fourteen national election wins is testament to the skills of the dedicated and talented HQ team that I have been privileged to lead.
“They give their all to the party and the independence cause and I thank them for it.
“I have worked for independence all my life and will continue to do so, albeit in a different capacity, until it is achieved – and I do firmly believe that independence is now closer than ever.”
Murrell was threatened with a no-confidence vote earlier on Saturday and told to resign as the party’s chief executive by the end of day, according to the Herald.
A senior member of the party’s national executive committee was quoted as saying: “We have the numbers. There’s not a hope in hell that Peter can survive a no-confidence motion.”
Currently, working parents with three and four-year-olds are eligible for 30 hours of free childcare per week but the government has said this will now be expanded to cover one and two-year-olds.
The plans are part of a government drive to encourage more people back to work - but what do parents think of the changes and will they have the desired effect?
'I've been lying awake at night, worrying'
Ellie Duncan
Practice nurse Ellie Duncan, from Darley Dale in Derbyshire, said she had seen the news overnight while she was feeding her four-month-old baby.
"I've had a spring in my step today," she said.
"The thought of nursery fees and juggling that with my salary has been very difficult. I was already lying awake at night and worrying about it.
"It's not really where you want your head to be when you are looking after a little baby."
Ellie Duncan
Ellie, 37, said she felt the news was "long overdue" and would have saved her family a fortune had the scheme been in place when she and her husband Mark had their two older children - now aged 10 and seven.
"Friends of mine have left the nursing profession due to the cost of childcare, particularly if they had more than one child under four years of age," she said.
"In this case, it is often more cost-effective for a parent to leave their job and claim benefits.
"I know other nurses who work night shifts and then parent their young children all day - to the detriment of their mental and physical health.
"Others will work weekend shifts exclusively - losing time with their spouse and putting a strain on their relationship."
However she said the timescale for the childcare support - which will not be fully implemented until September 2025 - was not as good as she had hoped for.
"We should still benefit from 15 hours free childcare from September 2024," she said. "It is certainly an improvement on the existing provision and a step in the right direction for other working parents."
'I'm not sure how much difference it will make'
Stacey Sherwood
Stacey Sherwood, 34, a single mum of two from Braunstone in Leicestershire, said she has to work part-time so she can look after her two children.
"When I first heard the chancellor make the announcement I thought 'That's great'," she said.
"But unfortunately, when you look at it in detail, I'm not sure how much difference it will make."
Stacey currently works school hours, five days a week, as a sales administrator while her son, 10, attends school.
Her three-year-old daughter is at nursery three days a week and cared for by her parents on the other two days.
Although Universal Credit covers some of the nursery fees, Stacey said she had to find around £40 a day to cover the remainder - and that amount is set to increase.
"The nursery fees are due to go up £5 a day from next month, so that will be more money I'll have to find," she said.
Although Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said families on universal credit will get childcare support upfront instead of having to reclaim it, Stacey is not convinced it will change her circumstances much.
However, she welcomed the overall expansion of free childcare.
"I think it's going to benefit a lot of mums who are going back into the workplace," she said.
"Obviously with the kids being in nursery, they get to interact with kids their own age. My daughter's speech is incredible for her age and I do believe nursery has helped with that."
What are the changes?
Getty Images
The new help for parents will be introduced in stages.
Eligible working parents of two-year-olds will get 15 hours of free childcare per week from April 2024
Children between nine months and two years old will get 15 hours of free childcare from September 2024
All eligible under-fives will get 30 hours of free childcare from September 2025
Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) said: "Any support for parents to pay for childcare will be very welcome.
"It's crucial that our youngest children have access to the benefits of high quality early education.
"However, the current system for eligible twos, and for all three and four-year-olds is unsustainable for childcare providers.
"In order for this policy to work, the government must address the current crisis of underfunding of three and four-year-old places and the huge recruitment and retention challenges.
"We need a proper long-term strategy to plan for sufficient capacity and workforce to deliver all these additional places."
Rail travel around Great Britain will be severely disrupted again this weekend after the second 24-hour strike in three days started on Saturday morning.
Thousands of members of the RMT union working as train staff at 14 operators are on strike in the long-running dispute over pay and jobs.
Passengers have been urged to check before travel, with some operators advising to attempt to travel by train only if absolutely necessary.
Just under 50% of train services are expected to run in total, but with wide disparities in regions and operators.
With signallers not on strike, trains operated by transport authorities in Scotland and Wales and within London and Merseyside are running.
But some routes around England will be closed entirely, with all three nations of Great Britain affected by severely reduced cross-border services, particularly on LNER, and on Avanti to north Wales.
Other long-distance operators, including Avanti, GWR and East Midlands, will run hourly intercity services.
CrossCountry, TransPennine, West Midlands, Northern and Chiltern will all cut trains back significantly from normal routes.
Some networks in the south are expected to be badly hit, with most stations on SouthEastern closed, and South Western and Southern affected by engineering works.
Only C2C and parts of Greater Anglia are expected to remain largely unaffected by the action.
Across the railway, disruption could persist early on Sunday. The industry body, the Rail Delivery Group, has urged passengers to check before they travel for updates.
The 14 train companies where staff are striking are: Avanti West Coast; C2C; Chiltern; CrossCountry; East Midlands Railway; GTR (Thameslink, Great Northern and Southern); Great Western Railway; Greater Anglia; LNER; West Midlands, including London Northwestern Railway; Northern; South Western Railway; Southeastern; and TransPennine Express.
Further strikes are scheduled by RMT train staff for 30 March and 1 April.
The industry has urged the RMT to call off further strikes and put the 9% pay offer made by train operators to its members for a vote.
Network Rail is not currently facing strikes, with RMT members voting in a referendum on a pay offer, and the result due from Monday afternoon.
The government’s decision to freeze income tax thresholds means nearly 3 million low- and middle-income Britons will have to pay basic or higher-rate tax for the first time this year while existing taxpayers will also have to stump up more.
There was no mention of this in Jeremy Hunt’s budget speech but that is because he had already said in November that personal tax thresholds are going to stay the same until 2028.
However, on Thursday, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) thinktank issued new figures showing what this is likely to mean for people. The freezing of income tax and national insurance allowances and thresholds will cost most basic rate taxpayers £500 from April and most higher rate taxpayers £1,000. Those who only move into tax or into a higher rate would face a smaller increase.
The policy results in what economists call “fiscal drag”, a term that describes the stealthy process of dragging more Britons into paying income tax and pushing others into a higher tax band.
Traditionally tax brackets are adjusted to keep pace with inflation; however, they have been frozen in cash terms since April 2021. This means that as incomes rise, more low earners are pulled into paying the 20% basic-rate income tax (which kicks in at £12,571) and those with earnings nearing £50,000 tip into the higher 40% rate (which kicks in at £50,271). (Note, Scotland’s income tax rates and thresholds are set by the Scottish parliament.)
The fiscal drag net will bring in an extra 1.7 million basic-rate taxpayers and 1.2 million higher rate taxpayers in the new financial year, which starts next month, according to the IFS but the ranks of new recruits will continue to swell.
The Office for Budget Responsibility, the government’s independent economic forecaster, estimates that there will be 3.2 million new taxpayers, 2.1 million more higher rate taxpayers and 350,000 additional-rate taxpayers in five years’ time than would have been the case if thresholds had kept up with inflation, according to the OBR.
At an individual level, if a person is making £51,000 and receives an annual pay rise of 3%, without adjusting personal allowances and thresholds to take account of inflation, they will have paid an additional £8,632 in income tax after six years, with their annual tax bill rising from £8,444 this tax year to £11,791 in the 2027-28 tax year, according to Blick Rothenberg, an advisory firm.
Fiscal drag also has implications for child benefit. The £50,000 threshold at which point higher earners start having child benefit clawed back has remained unchanged since the measure was introduced in 2013, meaning more parents are having to pay some of it back.
Families lose a proportion of their child benefit where either parent makes between £50,000 and £60,000. This is known as the high income child benefit charge. It is tapered, so the more you make more than £50,000 a year, the more you need to pay back, until you get to £60,000 and over, when you have to pay it all back. If you move into the sights of this charge, you need to fill in a self-assessment tax return.
“Fiscal drag is unfortunately very hard to plan for,” says Robert Pullen, a partner at Blick Rothenberg.
“The current government are freezing most allowances and bands until 2027-28, by which time inflation will have made a significant impact and dragged more people into tax for the first time, or into a higher rate.”
Individuals should make sure they are accessing all of the reliefs and allowances they are entitled to, Pullen advises.
This includes the personal savings allowance, which is £1,000 for a basic-rate taxpayer and £500 for a higher-rate payer.
It is also possible to claim tax relief for charitable donations or pension contributions, which can extend the basic-rate band limit.
Also, think about holding your investments in a tax-efficient way, such as through Isas and jointly with spouses or civil partners, which could double the allowances available, he adds.
If you can afford to, why not consider putting more money into your pension, says Sarah Coles, the head of personal finance at the investment firm Hargreaves Lansdown.
“It’s worth considering whether you can pay in more than you are at the moment. Contributions to pensions attract tax relief at your highest marginal rate, and the first 25% taken from the pension is usually tax free,” she adds.
Passport Office workers are to strike for five weeks in an escalation of a dispute over jobs, pay and conditions.
More than 1,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union working in Passport Offices in England, Scotland and Wales will take part in the action from April 3 to May 5.
Those working in Durham, Glasgow, Liverpool, London, Newport, Peterborough and Southport will walk out from April 3 to May 5 while those in Belfast will strike from April 7 to May 5.
The union said the action was a "significant escalation" of its long-running dispute, warning it was likely to have a "significant impact" on the delivery of passports as the summer approaches.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: "This escalation of our action has come about because, in sharp contrast with other parts of the public sector, ministers have failed to hold any meaningful talks with us, despite two massive strikes and sustained, targeted action lasting six months.
"Their approach is further evidence they're treating their own workforce worse than anyone else. They've had six months to resolve this dispute but for six months have refused to improve their 2% imposed pay rise, and failed to address our members' other issues of concern.
"They seem to think if they ignore our members, they'll go away. But how can our members ignore the cost-of-living crisis when 40,000 civil servants are using foodbanks and 45,000 of them are claiming the benefits they administer themselves?
"It's a national scandal and a stain on this government's reputation that so many of its own workforce are living in poverty."
