Grand National office sweepstakes could be illegal for people working from home, solicitors have warned. The nation’s largest horse race, taking place at Aintree this Saturday, is a popular event for office sweepstakes. The increase in remote working means that many employees will no longer be able to partake in a “ work lottery ”, where shares of a bet are divided among the winners. The exemption was conceived so that the general public could “ have a bit of fun by taking part in what is offici

Boris Johnson’s plan B measures to tackle the spread of the Omicron variant in England is working, the vaccine minister has said, despite hospitals across the country declaring critical incidents. Six NHS trusts declared critical incidents – where bosses are concerned they may not be able to provide priority services – while the NHS Confederation said the health service was is in “ a state of crisis ”.... Vaccines minister Maggie Throup said on Tuesday that “ plan B is working ” and indicated t

If that rises further then we look at things like merging classes, teaching in bigger numbers.” Mr Zahawi admitted it was “ more challenging, of course, to deliver education with masks on in the classroom ”.... They have an infrastructure to do that.... We now have 10, 000 more nurses and 3, 000 more doctors than we had last year working in the NHS.“ But the NHS is very good at sort of making sure that staff shortages are monitored and dealt with pretty well....