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Due to the budget cuts that have been made by the new government current police numbers are not “sustainable” according to the President of the Association of Chief Police Officers Sir Hugh Orde. Later today Sir Hugh orde is expected to tell a conference it is “misleading in the extreme” to claim otherwise.

On the positive side of this undoubtedly bad news he will urge ministers to make structural reforms, rather than “salami slicing” the police to save money. The home secretary will be telling forces such as the Police that they will no longer have to meet a set of minimum standards created by Labour. This seems a strange decision in my eyes, and yet more unhappy people as a result of the new government.

David Cameron has admitted that the pensions of existing public-sector workers will be cut. With this news it is likely that employees are expected to pay more towards their pensions and get less on retirement than they expected.

The prime minister and Nick Clegg said that they wanted to start by limiting the pensions of those on the highest salaries. It is believed that these could be worth £60,000-£70,000 a year.

This news will come as even more bad news for many people who have been saving their pensions for many years, and those who have pension benefits in the public sector.

Government spending cuts could lead to thousands of construction job losses and longer housing waiting lists, a campaign group has warned.

It is believed that The National Housing Federation said the housing budget could be cut by up to 32% over four years. This is bad news for constructuion jobs in general and the news will not be greeted with open arms.

The damage of this could lead to 200,000 construction jobs being lost or not created, and 350,000 people being added to housing waiting lists in England, it said. All of this depends on the government however who are set to announce cuts in the Budget on Tuesday.

The findings of an investigation that started when a hospital nurse was charged with killing three of her patients is due to be published today. Anne Grigg-Booth was charged with murdering three women aged 67, 75 and 97 in Keighley, West Yorkshire. She was accused of injecting patients with high doses of painkilling drugs.

Ms Grigg-Booth from Nelson in Lancashire died aged 52 before she could go on trial at Bradford Crown Court. She died from an accidental overdose of anti-depressants and had worked at the hospital for 25 years. Ms Grigg-Booth had denied all the offences at the time.

Now the independent inquiry team has produced a report which will be considered by the board of NHS Yorkshire and the Humber, with more news likely to be released on this.

A homeless man who became an “expert” at faking illnesses so he could stay in hospital has been handed a criminal Asbo. Christopher Dearlove is alleged to have used more than 70 aliases to trick NHS staff into admitting him to hospital. A judge at Bolton crown court has now banned him from using the NHS unless he is genuinely ill.

Dearlove knew which symptoms to report so that he could be classed as highly infectious in order to get his own room. Hospitals all over the UK were targeted in a deception which is thought to have begun 15 years ago.

Each time he was admitted to hospital, it the NHS between £400 and £1,000 and anti fraud experts say the fraud has cost the NHS tens of thousands of pounds overall.

When the Tory party was on the campaign trail, it promised to reform the financial sector so that economic problems such as those that caused the recession could be avoided in the future. Now the party is in a ruling coalition with the Liberal Democrats, that promise has been realised.

The Economic Crime Agency will be formed from elements of the Serious Fraud Office, Financial Services Authority and the Office of Fair Trading and will have a remit to persue those who are guilty of so called ‘white-collar crimes’.

While this is a good move in order to ensure those in positions of responsibility in the economy are kept from abusing their powers, it remains to be seen how exactly this new agency will differ from the old setup in terms of regulatory powers and ability to prosecute those accused of wrongdoing.

The school nurse is a dying breed these days – with budget cuts and liability law, treating children on-site for their scrapes has become much less common. Even vaccinations tend to be handled by off-site medical staff who will tour the schools as they perform their work. The Welsh Health Minister, Edwina Hart, has said she will bring the job back.

With Wales already enjoying a more freely available health service with free prescriptions amongst other measures, this is sure to reinforce the Welsh Assembly’s image.

Nursing unions, amongst others, have welcomed the decision and hope that the new staff present in schools will help children eat healthier. Other duties include social care as well as the medical care which is expected.

As you will know, British Airways are in the middle of long-running industrial action with the union UNITE over pay and conditions for their cabin crew. The dispute has threatened to affect those who rely on BA for their holiday plans or business arrangements with rolling strikes promised by the union, backed up by votes from their members. However, the situation has taken a turn in the last couple of days with the end of a court case over the issue.

The court case which BA brought against the union revolves around whether or not strike action is legal. BA affirm that it isn’t while UNITE claim that any attempt to block the strikes would cause the whole ‘right to strike’ system to founder and fail. Ultimately, with both sides playing hard ball, it was always going to come down to a technicality – and what a technicality!

BA have won the case on the grounds that the members of UNITE who were balloted were not informed of ’spoiled ballots’ as is supposed to happen. This rule has negated the legality of the ballot and therefore the strikes can not go ahead based on its outcome.

But the best bit? The total number of spoiled ballots was 11. Yup, 11 spoiled ballots in amongst tens of thousands valid ones.

If you’re a teacher you’ve probably long suffered people claiming you have an easy job. “They’re only kids”, “You get so many holidays” and of course the gem of “You only work until 3.30pm!” have all rung in the ears of teachers who then have to explain why it isn’t the ticket to an easy working life.

Well, research is now showing how teachers can have to work more than 400 hours extra per year without pay, just to get their job done. Reasons for this range from too much paperwork to classes with too many students, but the end result is the same: a lot of teachers who feel they are being taken advantage of.

While this is nothing new, hopefully more surveys of the industry will show that change must come about – after all, what good is a teacher who is too exhausted to teach?

Recently I have been looking around at the criteria by which finance is offered to people these days. Whether you’re looking for a credit card or a full-term mortgage, chances are the same criteria will be used to make the decision about whether you’re a worthwhile borrower or not.

Things such as salary, previous credit agreements and so on all have an effect, but one other factor which seems to pop up more and more is the type of work you’re involved with. For those in more clerically-oriented jobs it can be quite hard to categorise what they do – are they ‘professional’?

There are lots of definitions which conflict with each other, but the basic understanding is if you need specialist training or education to do what you do, then you’re a professional. How you categorise yourself can give a little boost when applying for finance, so make your mind up! Are you a professional?