This year’s print run has been cut to 50,000.The latest report says the UK Sports Institute was opened in 2000-01, “providing world-class facilities, coaching and support in Sheffield and national and regional centres around the UK”. But the plan to site the £7m headquarters in Sheffield, announced by Chris Smith, the Secretary of State for Culture, in 1997, was scrapped last October. Instead, the South Yorkshire city was designated a regional sporting centre while UKSI’s head office is to be in London.William Hague, the Tory leader, said: “Not a brick has been laid. No such institute has been opened and the whole thing is now to be sited in London.”Downing Street admitted that the reference to Sheffield in the report was “misleading” and blamed a “drafting error”. Mr Blair’s spokesman said: “This is an honest, factual account of what this Government has done.”But Andrew Lansley, the Tory spokesman on the Cabinet Office, said: “No amount of spin will cover up what the public already know from their own experiences. The Government is letting them down and it is failing to deliver on the issues that really matter.”Another headache for Mr Blair was caused by criticism from Peter Hain, a Foreign Office minister, that outraged his colleagues.

In The Independent yesterday, he said that some ministers were “automatons” and should act more politically to sell the Government’s message.Mr Hain was rebuked by John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, while Mo Mowlam, the Cabinet Office Minister, said: “He’s right in saying that everybody should get out and sell – including Peter Hain.” Mr Blair’s aides said Mr Hain’s language was “over the top” and “unhelpful”.The annual report strikes a more contrite tone than the first two published after Labour came to power, especially on the NHS. The deep problems in the health service will be highlighted by figures published today revealing wide variations in performance across the country, which the Department of Health admitted were “unacceptable.”The league tables show that, on almost every measure, Britain does not have a truly national service but a patchwork of local services performing at different levels of efficiency.Mr Blair admitted the Government still had “a lot to do” but said the country could now afford the investment in public services it had been denied under the Tories.The Prime Minister told the Cabinet that the Tories announcement that they would increase public spending by less than the growth in the economy was “a fundamental moment.” He ordered ministers to challenge their Tory opposite numbers to say how they would meet the total cuts of £17bn implied by the policy.. Home Office proposals to liberalise the sexual offences laws relating to gays are being blocked by Downing Street because of fears of a backlash by “Middle Britain”. Home Office proposals to liberalise the sexual offences laws relating to gays are being blocked by Downing Street because of fears of a backlash by “Middle Britain”.
Tony Blair is concerned that controversial plans to scrap the law that outlaws homosexual “cruising”, group sex and kissing in public could be damaging to Labour in the run-up to the general election.Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, is known to support changing the law as part of a wider reform of the country’s outdated sexual offences legislation, but has been told by Mr Blair to shelve the plans that concern gay sex.

The two men meet on Tuesday to discuss the issue.In a compromise move the Home Office is understood to be ready to publish proposals to toughen up and reform the laws concerning issues such as child abuse and rape, before Parliament closes for the summer on 28 July, but will say that the issue of gay sex needs further consultation.A year-long review had been expected to recommend that sex laws discriminating against homosexuals should be scrapped.But a Whitehall source confirmed that Mr Blair was worried about the reaction. News that the Home Office was reviewing the laws provoked condemnation in May from church and conservative family groups and from the right-wing press.The decision to slow any changes on homosexual sex will be seen as further evidence of the Government’s alarm at its election prospects and a blow to gay-rights campaigners who are now expected to turn to the European Court of Human Rights to force through the changes.The most contentious issue is the offence of gross indecency, which carries a maximum five-year jail sentence. The law, which dates back to 1885, makes it illegal for adult males to have any form of sexual relationship where there are more than two people present.Gay rights organisations want these laws, which apply only to gay men, replaced with the existing legislation thatallows the prosecution of anyone who causes a nuisance by having sex in public.There were 354 cases of gross indecency between males reported in England and Wales last year.. The number of people in poverty rose by 500,000 during the first two years of Labour government. The number of people in poverty rose by 500,000 during the first two years of Labour government.
Government statistics released yesterday showed that in April 1999, 400,000 more pensioners and 100,000 more children were living in households with less than half the average income, which stood at £17,400 per year.The Liberal Democrats described the figures as “damning” and accused the government of trying to sneak them out on the same day as its annual report.Steven Webb, the Liberal Democrat Social Security spokesman, said the figures did not even take into account the “derisory” 75p rise in pensions this April. “This proves that the growth in poverty during the Tory years has continued under Labour,” he said.

“Pensioners in particular have had a raw deal.”Although the Government’s document omitted figures for the year it came to power, making comparisons more difficult, an examination of last year’s report on below-average household incomes showed little progress had been made.The number of people living in poverty rose from 10.5 million in 1996-97 to 11 million in 1998-99. Of the extra 500,000, four-fifths were pensioners and a fifth were children.Publishing the figures, the Secretary of State for Social Security, Alistair Darling, said they showed the depth of the problem the Government faced. “Poverty on the scale inherited by this Government took years to build up. Today’s report confirms the scale of the problem we need to turn around,” he said.However, more people of working age were in jobs and that had helped to tackle poverty levels. “The tax and benefit measures announced in Gordon Brown’s budgets will lift 1.2 million children out of poverty by the end of this Parliament, putting us on track to meet our commitment to halve child poverty within a decade and eradicate it within 20 years,” he said.The new figures also highlighted a growing gender gap in the jobs market, with most new jobs going to men. While the proportion of men in work rose by 3.1 per cent between 1994 and 1998, to 78.5 per cent, the proportion of women in work rose by just 2.7 per cent, to 65.1 per cent.Women were more likely to be poor than men, according to new statistics on below-income households, especially if they had children.