Afternoon Briefing Friday 7th November

0:00This episode of the Times Radio News Briefing is sponsored by PwCWC. Staying competitive means getting ahead, not just keeping up. So how do business leaders cut through the noise and focus on what really matters. PwC takes you further with tech, from optimising the systems that put your data to work, to scaling AI from proof of concept to competitive edge. PwC helps you meet tomorrow's tech demands, so you can compete at a speed that rewrites the rules. Discover more at pwc.co.uk. Hello, this is your Times Afternoon Briefing for Friday the 7th of November with me, James Kitchen. The Housing Secretary, Steve Reid, has told Times Radio the criminal justice system is broken.

0:43It comes after the Justice Secretary announced engineers will be sent into prisons to roll out technology aimed at stopping inmates being freed in error. One prisoner, an Algerian sex offender, is still on the run from Wandsworth jail after being mistakenly released. And under pressure, David Lammy met with several governors yesterday while the Prime Minister says the situation's intolerable. Speaking to Times Radio, Mr Reid defended his cabinet colleague and blamed the Tories for failing to reform outdated systems. The previous government refused to invest in the criminal justice system, so they're using a paper-based system where you've got tens of thousands of bits of paper flying around and human error means things go wrong.

1:23They should have invested to digitise that system. That is what this government is going to do. But it's not just the prisoner release process. If you look at probation, if you look at delays in the courts, if you look at the way that they cut the police, if you look at the way that they filled up the prisons without building new places, the whole criminal justice system is broken. Meanwhile, three men have been charged with murder after a child killer was found dead in his cell at Wakefield Prison. 33-year-old Carl Bevan was jailed for life for murdering his partner's two-year-old daughter in Pembrokeshire in 2020.

1:55The Chancellor has told the Budget Watchdog she plans to increase income tax in a bid to improve the public finances. The Times has learned that Rachel Reeves informed the OBR that a rise in personal taxation is one of the major measures she'll announce this month. The Chancellor is considering a two-pence rise in income tax and a two-pence cut in national insurance to help fill a£30 billion black hole. Jack Barnett is the Times' economics correspondent. They're trying to incentivise people to stay in the workforce. They're trying to incentivise people to go into employment because with the national insurance cut, but it means that you are getting a little bit of relief, even though your income tax has increased as well.

2:36So I think the main reason behind it is they don't want to increase taxes which don't motivate people to get into the workplace. Labour's new deputy leader Lucy Powell says the government should stick to its manifesto pledge not to raise personal taxes. Tesla shareholders have approved a salary package for its chief executive, Elon Musk, that could make him the world's first dollar trillionaire. But the founder must achieve a series of milestones over the next decade if he's to maximise his payout. They include pushing a million self-driving robo-taxi vehicles into commercial operation. The business journalist Ian King told Times Radio the board approved the retainer over fears Musk might leave the company without it.

3:16Tesla without Elon Musk is a severely denuded company. He has been the driving force of this business for the best part of a decade. Without him, it's a whole lot less valuable. And ITV's in talks with Sky over a potential£1.6 billion sale of its media and entertainment division. The broadcaster's been a takeover target in recent years, and it's understood the deal centres on the possible creation of the UK-focused streaming giant. The discussions don't include the company's studio's arm. And remember, you can follow The Times News Briefing on Spotify, and you can listen live to Times Radio Online.

3:58This episode of the Times Radio News Briefing is sponsored by PwC. AI is everywhere. In the news, in our hands, but return on investment, not so much. So how do you get beyond the hype and deliver AI that powers reinvention and growth across your business? Strong foundations unlock AI's potential. That's why PwC takes you further with tech, strengthening the data quality, processes and workflows that shape how well AI performs. PwC turns innovation into implementation so you can accelerate from experiment to scale. Discover more at pwc.co.uk While every other channel is fighting for your customers' attention, podcasts are where they've already given it.

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