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Housing benefit for council and housing association tenants was reduced by 14 per cent for those deemed to have one spare bedroom and by 25 per cent for those with two or more spare bedrooms. Council Tax Benefit, claimed by 5.9 million families, was transformed into Council Tax Support, supplied by local authority schemes. The Financial Services Authority was replaced by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. In the National Health Service, GP-led groups took control of local budgets and a new board called NHS England began to oversee day-to-day running of services. The introduction of a 111 health helpline throughout England was delayed after some pilot schemes proved unsatisfactory, with callers holding on for hours. A policewoman sued a petrol station after tripping over a kerb there while investigating a 999 call in the middle of the night. Robbers were caught on closed-circuit television gathering cash after blowing up a cash dispenser at a petrol station at Weyhill, Hampshire. Oxford won the Boat Race to make it 77 wins to Cambridge’s 81. The BBC broadcast live the instructions of the Oxford cox, Oskar Zorrilla, to his crew, such as ‘Be fucking tenacious.’
Children’s heart surgery at Leeds General Infirmary was suspended by Sir Bruce Keogh, the medical director of the NHS, after figures suggesting a high mortality rate were drawn to his attention, and Professor Sir Roger Boyle, the director of the National Institute of Clinical Outcomes Research, had raised concerns about junior staff being left in charge. But Dr John Gibbs, a former cardiologist at Leeds and now chairman of the Central Cardiac Database, said: ‘We have not even got the data statistically analysed yet. It is not fair to the public to leak provisional data.’
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