In the news: data in the UK Data Service collection across the web

The front page of the Guardian carried stories on the two burning issues of the day: the eruption of violence in Northern Ireland, and the endless negotiations over the UK joining the EEC. The chief comment piece was speculation about a forthcoming general election, with Labour behind in the polls. And a large advert from the Decimal Currency Board proclaimed the arrival that day of the “50 new penny piece”.

Receptionists, security guards, porters and postroom staff at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) in London have joined cleaners and caterers in striking for better pay and conditions, marking a significant escalation in the dispute.

The workers are employed by the contractors ISS and Aramark, who run security, catering, cleaning and support services at BEIS.

A home close to an urban green space can be good for the soul.

For city dwellers, living within about 300 yards of a park or nature reserve was associated with higher life satisfaction, higher sense of worth and more happiness, British researchers recently reported in the journal Applied Geography.

SOME patients in Swindon are finding more difficult than ever before to get an appointment at their GP surgery.

The borough is 25 per cent short of its quota of full-time GPs, with total number the number dropping from 125 to 116 in the last two years.

Much-publicised problems resulting from the IMH management of five surgeries in the town – Taw Hill, Eldene and Phoenix surgeries and the Abbey Meads and Moredon medical centres – has made matters worse.

Practice has emerged since new law designed to save renters in England money

If it seems too good to be true, it probably is! If you’re not expecting it, don’t sign for it! This is sound advice following the latest delivery scam to reach the UK.

Unscrupulous fraudsters are finding ever more inventive ways to con people out of their hard-earned cash and one of the latest is a delivery scam.

Widespread sexism is fuelling poor mental health among women, a new study suggests, with 20% of those surveyed reporting sex-based discrimination.

The one in five women who experienced discrimination were three times more likely to go on to report having clinical depression in the four years following their experiences, compared to their peers.

High levels of sexism could be fuelling poor mental health among women, a study suggests. One in five women report sex discrimination and these women are also more likely to develop poorer mental health after the experience.

The University College London (UCL) study, published in Health Psychology, analysed data from nearly 3,000 women over four years. Few men reported sex discrimination so were not included in the analysis. The group provided information on perceived sexism and their mental health status at the outset of the study in 2009/10 and then again in 2013/14.

One in five women report sex discrimination and these women are more likely to develop poorer mental health after the sexist experience, according to a new UCL study investigating links between sexism and mental health and wellbeing.

The recent European elections saw a range of small, single-issue parties perform exceptionally well. In the United Kingdom, the Brexit Party received 30.7% of the votes. In Germany, the Green Party made remarkable gains, winning 20.5% of the votes. Green parties also performed well in countries such as France, Sweden and Finland, as did anti-immigration far-right parties. Although these strong results may be viewed as inevitable consequences of fragmenting party systems linked to the growing importance of issues such as climate change, immigration and national pride in public debate, these results in fact fit a longstanding pattern: single-issue parties – sometimes referred to as ‘niche parties’ – tend to receive higher vote shares in European and subnational elections (so called ‘second-order elections’) than in preceding and subsequent national elections. Why is this the case?

Research carried out by Decathlon has found that children tend to be the least active family members. 77 per cent of 7,600 parents questioned said that they exercised more frequently than their children, even when PE lessons were taken into account.

In 2017, Cycling UK said that getting more children cycling to school should be a public health priority after the Millennium Cohort Study highlighted a ‘stark’ increase in the proportion of children who are overweight or obese between the ages of seven and 11.

The Government recently published the National Travel Survey, one of the annual highlights in the calendar for transport researchers such as myself. Contained in the cells and tabs of the 77 spreadsheets served up in the survey (as well as, to the credit of the Department for Transport, its accompanying commentary document) is a statistical nirvana on how we, as a nation, are travelling.

A tax on biscuits, cakes and sweets might be more effective at reducing obesity levels than increasing the price of sugar-sweetened drinks, latest research suggests.

The study, published in the BMJ, found that high-sugar snacks made up more free sugar and energy intake than fizzy drinks. Researchers used economic modelling to assess the impact of a 20% increase on high-sugar snack foods in the UK.

Raising the cost by 20% would help reduce annual average energy intake by around 8,900 calories and lead to an average weight loss of 1.3kg (2.8lb) over one year, researchers claimed.

Like many baby boomers, Keith and Pamela Travis, 65 and 64 respectively, have done well out of the property market.

The couple benefited from buying before the housing boom, paying £17,500 for their first home in Cumbria in the 1980s. Following various moves, they were able to go mortgage-free in 2011, and have been nicely set up for retirement with their four-bed house in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, now worth £700,000.

But they have recently taken out a so-called “marathon mortgage” across 40 years, stretching until they are 105 and 104.

With HMRC data showing that 374,000 people over the age of 65 made donations in tax year 2017/18, totalling £1,092 million, the Charity Commission has issued advice to help older donors avoid falling victim to fraud.

The Charity Commission also cites recent findings from the Crime Survey for England and Wales, which show that almost 1 in 12 of respondents aged 65 and older reported being the victim of fraud in the last year: equivalent to more than 800,000 older people in England and Wales. Its own research from 2017 suggests just under a third of 65-74 year olds usually do checks on a charity before donating.