UK News from OneWorld UK

31.03.2004 Draft legislation to regulate the chemical industry could save billions of pounds on health care and environmental clean ups, figures published in the government's official consultation document reveal. The potential savings dwarf the costs of implementing the legislation, cited as a major obstacle by the chemicals industry.

25.03.2004 The UK government has ended its 10% bonus on payroll giving donations, to the disappointment of the Charity Aid Foundation, and instead is offering companies with less than 500 employees Payroll Giving Grants to assist the establishment of new company schemes.

24.03.2004 The first refugees to take part in a government refugee resettlement scheme have arrived in the UK. The programme will be run on a quota basis, initially set at 500 people a year. The first group of refugees to arrive in the UK escaped war in Liberia and have been living in refugee camps for up to ten years in Sierra Leone and Guinea.

24.03.2004 Patenting the genetic make-up of England's wildlife could lead to companies commercialising genes without any benefit for the British public or the environment and should be resisted by the government, according to Friends of the Earth. The warning comes as English Nature is said to be "on the verge of striking a deal to bio-prospect some of Britain's most famous Nature reserves".

23.03.2004 The UK government should ban enrofloxacin, an antibiotic that is added to the drinking water of chickens and turkeys, says the Soil Association following a recent ban in the U.S. There are concerns that bacteria are becoming resistant to a closely related drug because of its overuse in the intensive poultry industry.

20.03.2004 Greenpeace activists scale Big Ben to hold up a "Time for the truth" banner under the clock face on the anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq. Tens of thousands of protesters take to the streets in London and across the world.

19.03.2004 Greenpeace is demanding that the UK government seizes a huge cargo of illegal timber from Indonesia's rainforests, where logging is threatening the survival of orang-utans and tigers.

18.03.2004 A UK delegation including members of WWF and the National Federation of Women's Institutes have travelled to the European Parliament in Brussels to demand safer chemicals in everyday products and an end to the contamination of people and wildlife.

17.03.2004 UK plans to restrict appeal rights in asylum cases will place children at risk warns the Refugee Children’s Consortium, which includes The Children’s Society, NCH and Save the Children.

17.03.2004 The main barrier to AIDS treatment is the absence of enough political will, according to the People & Planet’s new report, which sets out in detail exactly what the UK government must do to get treatment to the millions who desperately need it.