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Experts say new NHS charging policy is not fully costed
This week, the government introduced upfront NHS fees for overseas visitors. But an investigation by FactCheck has found that crucial details were left out of the costings.
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Theresa May is wrong: the number of workless households did not double under Labour
The number of workless households rose by about 7 per cent under Labour, not 100 per cent as the Prime Minister said today. David Cameron was called out for making the same mistake three years ago.
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FactCheck Q&A: How many children are going to gender identity clinics in the UK?
50 children a week are being referred to the UK’s main gender identity clinic, yet only around 25 per cent of young children with gender dysphoria go on to be trans adults. FactCheck looks at the figures.
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Why do so few black students go to Oxbridge?
David Lammy, a former Labour minister for higher education, has published data from Freedom of Information requests showing that very low numbers of black students are going to Oxford and Cambridge. That in itself isn’t news – both the elite universities already publish data on the ethnicity of their students. But the MP has published…
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10 times government ministers re-wrote parliamentary records after making false claims
Transcripts from the House of Commons can be quietly edited if politicians’ claims are proved wrong. But the public rarely hears an apology. Here are ten incorrect claims we discovered which were made by government ministers. They were all corrected afterwards – but often not for weeks.
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Was Jeremy Corbyn right about the cost of the universal credit helpline?
It’s not clear that people on the cheapest phone tariffs would have had to pay 55p a minute to call the helpline – if at all.
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Police ‘screen out’ nearly a third of crimes, with no further investigation
The Metropolitan Police have announced new guidelines designed to ‘screen out’ some crimes without investigation. But data obtained by FactCheck shows that the Met already screens out hundreds of thousands of cases each year.
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Is Chris Grayling being realistic about growing more food after Brexit?
Chris Grayling said that Britain could grow more food to protect prices in the event of a no-deal Brexit. But leading environmental scientists aren’t sure that would be practical in the short time before we leave the EU.
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Jeremy Corbyn’s claims about universal credit
Jeremy Corbyn talked about universal credit and its effects on tenant evictions and child poverty. We take a look at his claims.
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Is Theresa May telling the whole story about Labour’s time in office?
The Prime Minister said that under Labour, 1.4 million people spent most of the last decade on out-of-work benefits. But she didn’t mention that many of those people were on disability or illness benefits.
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How many women face sexual harassment in the workplace?
Allegations of sexual assault and rape against Harvey Weinstein are making headlines around the world. The Hollywood producer was fired from his own company after a number of women who worked with Weinstein accused him of sexual harassment and assault. Further allegations of rape have emerged in recent days. Weinstein has issued a statement saying…
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Jeremy Hunt admits false claims over mental health
Speaking on World Mental Health Day, the health secretary told MPs: “We’ve got 30,000 more people working in mental health today than we had when [Labour] left office.” But when questioned by FactCheck, the Department for Health admitted that Mr Hunt’s figure includes all professionally qualified clinical NHS staff in England – not just those working in mental health.
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The culture secretary said the EU referendum was binding – it wasn’t
The culture secretary, Karen Bradley, was doing the rounds of breakfast television this morning. She spoke to BBC Breakfast and ITV’s Good Morning Britain about her new plans for online safety. But the discussion inevitably veered towards Brexit, after Theresa May’s interview yesterday in which she apparently refused to say if she’d vote to leave…
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Is the UK lagging behind on stopping the ivory trade?
The government’s trying to crack down on the ivory trade. But how does the UK compare to the rest of the world?
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Governments since 1997 have failed to build 600,000 houses
Successive governments have failed to build around 600,000 promised homes. That would be enough to house everyone in Glasgow.