Morning briefing Thursday 6th 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. This is the Times Morning Briefing for Thursday 6th November with me, Rob Malarkey. The national chairman of the Prison Officers Association says a persistent failure to invest in the prison service was responsible for the latest mistaken release of a migrant sex offender.

0:51The prison service was unaware for six days that it had freed Ibrahim Khadour Sharif, a 24-year-old Algerian who was due to be deported. The Times has learned he was to be remanded in custody for another offence, but was allowed to walk free because of a breakdown in communications. Speaking to Times Radio, Mark Fairhurst of the POA says cuts have consequences. Prisons are not vote winners. And I think after 14 years of austerity and cuts, you can't cut us to the bone. You can't reduce experience staff. You can't invest in our infrastructures without failings occurring. And this just highlights what's gone wrong.

1:30The Justice Secretary David Lammy has been accused of misleading MPs when he was asked about the issue in the Commons on Wednesday. An exclusive Times Radio investigation has revealed the tactics that scammers are using to con learner drivers out of money. Tests should cost£62, but as they're in short supply, our reporter Emma Kerwin went undercover and was approached by a fraudster. We will book your test, then you have to pay£260. OK, because I already failed once. I have a person, by taking some bribery possible, he charged£562. Action fraud figures shared with us reveal scams like this cost victims a total of£134 ,000 between January and August, with the amount of money victims are losing every month trebling in that time.

2:22This woman, who didn't want to be named, was conned. The money was very important and very hard-earned, saved money. We planned that money that we have to invest this on your driving test, on your instruction, and it's like ripping you apart. The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency told us it will take action against anyone exploiting learners. The Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, is calling for an independent watchdog to investigate institutional scandals. The proposed new body, the Independence Office for Institutional Accountability, would have powers to investigate cases of abuse as well as other features such as the delivery of compensation.

3:02compensation. The Times political reporter Daisy Eastlake says the watchdog would hold the government to account and help victims. Often these inquiries and the long-running processes and investigations into these kinds of scandals just delays their kind of search for justice in a way. Public inquiries are not cheap and when they drag on for so long it just it has a lot of negative impacts and the hope would be that an independent body would sort that out. And Sakiya Starmer will promise he won't let down future generations in a speech to the United Nations COP30 summit in Brazil later. But the UK is not expected to pay any money into a multi-billion dollar fund to save the world's rainforests, after the Treasury reportedly questioned the cost of backing the scheme.

3:46You can follow the Times News Briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio Online.

3:55This 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