Monday morning UK news briefing: Today's top headlines from The Telegraph - Financespiders

• Telegraph
• 22 Aug, 2022

1. NHS 111 delays force patients to wait 20 times longer than promised

Patients calling NHS 111 are being left on hold for 20 times longer than the expected time, data show, as the public is urged to use the service instead of going to accident and emergency.
 

The helpline for medical advice aims to answer calls in 20 seconds or less on average, according to an NHS benchmark. However, the latest official figures show the average time to answer a call was 395 seconds - six and a half minutes. 

2. Meta risks a ‘grotesque betrayal’ of children, says Patel

Facebook's parent company risks a “grotesque betrayal” of children by introducing encrypted messaging without safeguards against child abuse, Priti Patel says.

Writing in The Telegraph, the Home Secretary urges Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp, to rethink its plans to roll out end-to-end encryption next year. 

3. Nicola Sturgeon's Indyref2 plan is 'waste of time and money'

Nicola Sturgeon has been accused of playing "political games" over independence after one of her former advisers claimed she knows her bid to stage a new referendum next year is doomed.

Alex Bell, a former SNP special advisor, said the Scottish Government had received legal advice making clear Holyrood does not have the power to hold a new vote without UK permission and denounced the current strategy as "a waste of time and money". 

4. Russians vow to strike Ukraine after daughter of Putin's ally dies

Kremlin-linked officials have vowed to strike Ukraine as Russia blamed Kyiv for a car bomb attack in Moscow that killed a prominent pro-war ideologue - the first attack in the Russian capital since the start of the war.

Ukrainian officials denied they had any links to the murder of Darya Durgina, but have still warned of increased Russian attacks around Ukraine's Independence Day on August 24, which also marks six months since the start of the war. Read the full story.

5. Tuition fees for British students must be increased, university bosses warn

Tuition fees for British students must be increased or even more places will go to foreign applicants, university bosses have warned.
 

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The frozen rate of £9,250 for UK students is forcing institutions to take on an increasing number of applicants from countries such as China and India, who pay average annual fees of £24,000, they claimed. Source: Telegraph