British Politics Thread

Discs containing information from three of the UK's most sensitive inquiries have gone missing after being put in the post. The material relates to inquiries into the role of the police in the deaths of three men, Mark Duggan, Azelle Rodney and Robert Hamill.

Officials realised the discs were missing three weeks ago and one member of staff has since been suspended. The government said it took the loss "extremely seriously".

Two of the investigations in question relate to fatal police shootings of crime suspects in London - an inquest into the death of Mark Duggan in 2011 and an inquiry into the death of Azelle Rodney in 2005. The third is an inquest into the 1997 murder of Robert Hamill by loyalists in Portadown, Northern Ireland, which campaigners claim involved the collusion of police officers.

In each inquiry there were witnesses, including police officers, who were given anonymity because of possible threats to their safety. Officials have not confirmed whether any of the missing documents included personal information relating to these witnesses.

M Ps have voted in favour of making Britain the first country in the world to permit IVF babies to be created using biological material from three different people to help prevent serious genetic diseases.

In a historic debate, the House of Commons voted by 382 to 128 – a majority of 254 – to allow mitochondrial donation through a controversial amendment to the 2008 Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act. They approved the regulation in spite of some critics warning it was a step towards creating “three-parent” designer babies.

The regulations will now have to be approved in the House of Lords, where they are likely to be passed.

M Ps were allowed a free vote on the issue of conscience but both the Conservative and Labour front benches made it clear they believed it was an important scientific step forwards that did not amount to genetic modification.

Jane Ellison, the Conservative public health minister, told M Ps the techniques provided in the regulations offered the only hope for some women who carried the disease to have “healthy, genetically-related children” who would not suffer from the “devastating and often fatal consequences” of mitochondrial disease. She said mitochondrial DNA made up 0.054% of a person’s overall DNA and none of the nuclear DNA that determined personal characteristics and traits.

Critics of the motion had been given hope of defeating it after the Church of England and the Catholic Church in England and Wales said it was not yet clear that the technique was safe or ethical.

Government commissioners have been lined up to intervene at Rotherham Council where a culture of "complete denial" over child sexual exploitation in the town was exposed. A report commissioned by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said the authority was "not fit for purpose".

Council leader Paul Lakin has resigned and the council cabinet will also quit. An earlier inquiry found 1,400 children were abused by gangs of men, mainly of Pakistani origin, from 1997 to 2013.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) said the latest report, by Louise Casey, the director-general for troubled families at the Communities Department, identified "a number of potentially criminal matters". Files passed to the NCA relate to one former and one existing councillor arising from the inquiry, Ms Casey's spokesperson said.

Investigators found the council had a "deep-rooted" culture of cover-ups and silencing whistleblowers, Ms Casey said. It also found the child sexual exploitation (CSE) team was poorly directed, suffered from excessive case loads, and did not share information between agencies.

Ms Casey said: "This inspection revealed past and present failures to accept, understand and combat the issue of child sexual exploitation, resulting in a lack of support for victims and insufficient action against known perpetrators."

A spokesman for the NCA said it would "examine a number of potentially criminal matters identified during a recent inspection of Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council."

Mr Pickles said he planned to give control of the council to a team of five commissioners, including an overall lead and one tasked specifically with looking at children's services. They would "provide new leadership" and take over the roles of the "wholly dysfunctional cabinet," he said.

The council has 14 days to respond to his "wholly exceptional" proposals, Mr Pickles said. He also plans to impose early elections in 2016.

The elections would give people a chance to "renew the membership of their council and elect those they have confidence in", he explained. He said he hoped control would be returned to Rotherham Council as "rapidly as possible".