fact check

Lib Dem Schools Minister David Laws says we are spending billions ‘more’ on poorer schoolchildren. But does the party’s flagship ‘pupil premium’ just plug other holes in the schools budget?

We all know George Osborne failed to hold on to Britain’s triple-A credit rating. But what about the other benchmarks the chancellor asked us to judge him on?

We FactChecked the Food Standards Agency’s response to the horsemeat scandal last week and found it wanting. Has the agency kept its promise to make the food industry get its house in order?

The Food Standards Agency says it wants the meat industry to test all processed beef for traces of horse meat and report back in a week. A tall order, as FactCheck discovers.

Boris Johnson has promised to “keep police numbers high” in the capital. But FactCheck discovers that officer strength is really at a five-year low.

The number of apprenticeships continues to soar – but what’s the real story behind the headline? FactCheck investigates.

Are poor people really fatter? If so, what can we do about it. FactCheck (or should that be FatCheck?) investigates.

Another day, another so-called crackdown on Britain’s tax dodgers. But do the numbers stack up?

The latest government promise to get tough with corporate tax dodgers raises more questions than it answers.

The effect of all this is to artificially make it look like there has been a real increase in neighbourhood policing.

If Mr Osborne is doing the right thing by the planet and only boiling enough for one cup of tea, say 250ml instead of a litre, this brings the figure down to perhaps 80kj per brew.

Today’s strategy could be a lifeline for a government keen to avoid further U-turns. How does it work?

The “25 per cent cuts” line deserves a bit of a pinch of salt, as does the complaint that the fire service as a whole has been hit harder by austerity than other public services.

Birmingham and Manchester both told us they are running at about 60 per cent capacity, compared to Heathrow, which is still pretty much stretched to the limit at 99.2 per cent.

There are no hard statistics available on outcomes yet, which means we effectively have to take the minister’s word for it.