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Demonstrators who desecrate war memorials could face prison sentences of up to ten years, under plans being considered by ministers after the Cenotaph and a statue of Winston Churchill were boarded up to protect them from violent protests.

Robert Buckland, the Justice Secretary, Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, and Suella Braverman, the Attorney General, are understood to be discussing proposals to make it easier to prosecute people who damage monuments to those who died during wars. The measures under discussion could also cover some of the statues currently being targeted by activists.

The talks began after 125 Conservative MPs backed plans for a new Desecration of War Memorials Bill, which is due to be presented to the Commons on June 23 by two backbenchers, Jonathan Gullis, the MP for Stoke-on-Trent North, and James Sunderland, a former Army officer.

Ministers are facing a growing revolt from backbenchers about the...

Members of orchestras and bands would have to sit three metres apart and be subject to a cap of just eight performers in one room under plans drawn up to restart rehearsals and performances following the Covid-19 outbreak.

Draft guidance to enable musicians to resume work has prompted a row with industry bodies, who have branded the plans "unworkable".

A "working document" circulated by officials last week states that members of orchestras and bands using wind and brass instruments would have to sit three metres away from each other due to a higher risk of transmitting coronavirus when playing the devices.

Choirs and other groups of singers would be capped at six in one room, with three metres between each performer, and a six metre gap between them and anyone directly in front of them.

Tom Kiehl , the acting chief executive of UK Music, the umbrella body for the commercial music industry, said: “These proposals are unworkable.  The size of...

Primary schools will be able to accept children from all year groups if they are able to maintain a 15-pupil cap on class sizes, ministers are preparing to announce, following a major backlash over the re-opening of classrooms.

The Government is expected to state that primary schools can allow pupils of all ages to return before the summer, if they have the necessary space and number of teachers needed to keep children in groups of less than 16.

The disclosure comes as a senior forecaster said school closures may already have cost the economy about £22 billion, as it also emerged that the Chancellor warned colleagues that the shutdown would also impede social mobility.

Separately, Boris Johnson has said a planned "catch-up" programme for those who have missed out on education would have “massive importance ... not just for economic purposes, but for social justice.”

The Prime Minister is said to be concerned that many pupils will...

Demonstrators who desecrate war memorials could face prison sentences of up to ten years, under plans being considered by ministers after the Cenotaph and a statue of Winston Churchill were boarded up to protect them from violent protests.

Robert Buckland, the Justice Secretary, Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, and Suella Braverman, the Attorney General, are understood to be discussing proposals to make it easier to prosecute people who damage monuments to those who died during wars. The measures under discussion could also cover some of the statues currently being targeted by activists.

The talks began after 125 Conservative MPs backed plans for a new Desecration of War Memorials Bill, which is due to be presented to the Commons on June 23 by two backbenchers, Jonathan Gullis, the MP for Stoke-on-Trent North, and James Sunderland, a former Army officer.

Ministers are facing a growing revolt from backbenchers about the...

Keeping children out of school poses a far greater risk to them that coronavirus, a Government adviser has said.

The impact of Covid-19 on children’s health is “miniscule”, but spending a prolonged period out of school is devastating their development, Dr Gavin Morgan said.

His intervention comes amid rising concern that millions of children now face spending six months out of school, with the majority of pupils not expected to return to the classroom until September at the earliest.

This week, pupils in Reception, Year One and Year Six were allowed to return to the classroom, but many schools across the country decided to stay closed with more than 50 local councils defying the Government’s plans.

Downing Street stated last month that it was their “ambition” that primary schools would be fully open by the end of June to allow children four weeks of lessons before they break up again for the summer.

But this week the Government said that...

Efforts to release Britain from lockdown were repeatedly hampered by the failure to embark on mass surveillance testing to track levels of disease, it can be revealed.

Three and a half weeks after the measures came in, Public Health England (PHE) said it remained unable to deliver a community testing programme for Covid, which could allow ministers to ease social distancing rules, documents show.

The failings emerged alongside evidence suggesting PHE may have misled the Prime Minister when questioned about their testing regime.

Last night the head of the Commons science and technology said the delays and obscurification by health officials had left Britain taking “decisions in the dark”.

The minutes from a meeting of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), scientists pressed health officials on the importance of such a regime, to allow informed decision-making. But PHE refused to take on the work - so it was not until April 17 that...

The head of Channel 4 has admitted a “dreadful” and “inexcusable” error by the broadcaster’s news division during the election campaign made relations with the Government “very heated”.

Alex Mahon, chief executive, said in a Sunday Telegraph interview that she has overhauled guidelines for use of social media after Channel 4 News posted a viral video that wrongly subtitled Boris Johnson as saying “people of colour” and sparked false allegations of racism. He in fact said “people of talent” and the broadcaster apologised.

Ms Mahon said: “There was a period during the election campaign where things got very heated. We had a dreadful error in what you might call 'people-of-colour-gate’. That was inexcusable.

"The use of social platforms probably evolved past our guidelines.”

The BBC is conducting its own review of the use of social media by its journalists. Ofcom research found that Channel 4 News is the most trusted source on...

The British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant leading the global race to manufacture the first Covid-19 vaccine is also nearing a breakthrough on life-saving antibody treatments for the elderly and vulnerable.

A cloned antibody injection - which instantly arms the body to neutralise the virus - is likely to be a game-changer for those in the first stages of coronavirus.

Scientists in AstraZeneca bases in the UK and America are up to "full speed" on testing, with executives increasingly hopeful an effective treatment can go into production next year.

The company is beginning pre-emptive manufacturing of a pioneering vaccine, AZD1222, being tested with Oxford University.

This week the firm agreed deals to supply two billion doses of the vaccine worldwide by the end of the year. It is hoped Britons will get access to the first doses in September.

One of the new partnerships agreed this week was with the Serum Institute of India (SII), the...

Boris Johnson has ordered ministers to speed up the construction of new hospitals, as he prepares to set out a blueprint for how he will "rebuild Britain" in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, The Sunday Telegraph can disclose.

In a major speech expected within weeks, the Prime Minister will set out plans to accelerate the Conservatives' major infrastructure plans, including his manifesto pledges to build 40 new hospitals, and fund major upgrades to the country's roads.

The speech will effectively re-launch the Conservatives' domestic agenda after months of the Government focusing almost entirely on battling Covid-19. It will "map" the Government's plans for the rest of the year, including an autumn budget and a major review of departmental spending.

Mr Johnson's plans to speed up major infrastructure projects are designed to help restore the economy and reduce unemployment, amid warnings that unemployment could exceed 10 per cent.

The Prime...

Science advice to Cobr and to ministers needs to be direct and given without fear or favour. But it is advice. Ministers must decide and have to take many other factors into consideration. In a democracy, that is the only way it should be. The science advice needs to be independent of politics.

In the past, evidence from Sage has been published at the end of the particular crisis it was called for. In the days before Sage existed science advice to government was often not published at all. When it comes to this crisis it is clear we must get the information out as soon as possible, and in my opinion, as close to real time as is feasible and compatible with allowing ministers the time they need.

As the Sage papers become available it is possible to track the evolution of thinking. It is possible to see how unknowns became known and where significant gaps in knowledge still exist. The papers also provide a chance to correct some of the misconceptions that...

Britain's top scientist today defends the Government's right to choose when and how it eases the lockdown, amid public criticism by several members of the panel advising ministers on the Covid-19 outbreak.

Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, Sir Patrick Vallance says ministers have to take "many other factors into consideration" beyond scientific advice, adding that such advice should be "independent of politics".

His intervention comes as Boris Johnson faced claims that he was easing lockdown restrictions too quickly, with one member of the 55-strong Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) that "many of us" would rather wait for infection rates to be reduced even further before relaxing the measures. In another public criticism of government policy, Sir Jeremy Farrar, suggested on Twitter that "clear science advice" showed that Covid-19 was "spreading too fast to lift lockdown in England."

But Sir Patrick, who chairs Sage in his role as Chief...

Over the next month the Government will roll out a national contact tracing scheme 14 weeks after officials raised the country's poor readiness for such a scheme.

England is now recording around 8,000 new cases of Covid-19 a day and the NHS "test and trace" system is promising to warn up to 10,000 people a day that they have been near someone who has tested positive.

The end of routine testing in the UK came on March 12, when Boris Johnson announced that anyone with symptoms of coronavirus should simply stay home for a week. On this day the UK recorded 421 new cases.

However, after the virus raged uncontrolled through the UK that month, ministers were forced back to nationwide testing, announcing a "five pillar" plan on April 2, which finally led to a nationwide tracing service launched this week.

A desperate initial shortage of capacity to test and trace is detailed among 51 papers released on Friday, including minutes of 34...