The body running courts in England and Wales has been accused of a cover-up, after a leaked report found it took several years to react to an IT bug that caused evidence to go missing, be overwritten or appear lost.
Sources within HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) say that as a result, judges in civil, family and tribunal courts will have made rulings on cases when evidence was incomplete.
The internal report, leaked to the BBC, said HMCTS did not know the full extent of the data corruption, including whether or how it had impacted cases, as it had not undertaken a comprehensive investigation.
It also found judges and lawyers had not been informed, as HMCTS management decided it would be "more likely to cause more harm than good".
HMCTS says its internal investigation found no evidence that "any case outcomes were affected as a result of these technical issues".
However, the former head of the High Court's family division, Sir James Munby, told the BBC the situation was "shocking" and "a scandal"
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwye2q00k51o.amp
img: ID 74559547 | Justice Statue © Tupungato | Dreamstime.com
Report on substation fire which closed Heathrow
Neso has just published the final report on the North Hyde 275kV substation fire which impacted over 70,000 thousand customers, including Heathrow Airport resulting in a decision to close the airport.
Women are 73% more likely to be seriously injured in a head-on car crash compared with men in the same crash. Female drivers and front-seat passengers are 17% more likely to be killed in a car crash than a male occupant of the same age, according to multiple studies conducted over the last five years.
Chris O’Conner, president and CEO of Humanetics, one of the world’s leading producers of crash test dummies, said that’s for a relatively simple and chilling reason: Cars are not designed to be safe for women.
“If you look back in history, the crash test dummy was designed around a male, and that male became the baseline,” O’Conner said, adding that vehicles are being designed “around a male.”
Republican Sen. Deb Fischer’s "She DRIVES Act" would raise the standards for car safety testing, promoting the use of "crash test dummies that reflect a woman’s lighter frame."
img: ID 968714 © Michelle Marsan | Dreamstime.com
According to the report by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), switches in the Boeing 787 Dreamliner's cockpit that controlled fuel moved to a "CUTOFF" position.
It said: "Engine 1 and Engine 2 fuel cutoff switches transitioned from RUN to CUTOFF position one after another with a time gap of one second.
"The Engine N1 and N2 began to decrease from their take-off values as the fuel supply to the engines was cut off."
There was then confusion in the cockpit. In the voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why he "cut off". The other pilot responds that he did not do so.
The 15-page report did not identify which comments were made by the flight's captain and which were made by the first officer. One of the pilots made a "mayday, mayday, mayday" call just before the crash.
Both pilots were experienced, with around 19,000 flying hours between them, including more than 9,000 on the 787.
img: Prime Minister's Office (GODL-India), GODL-India <https://data.gov.in/sites/default/files/Gazette_Notification_OGDL.pdf>, via Wikimedia Commons
Titan sub firm used 'intimidation tactics' and 'critically flawed' safety practices, Coast Guard report finds
A damning report published by the US Coast Guard on 5th August 2025 looked at what went wrong in June 2023, when the Titan submersible took five people on an expedition to see the Titanic shipwreck - but the sub imploded, killing all on board.
The implosion of the vessel was caused by the loss of structural integrity of its carbon fibre hull, exposing passengers to "approximately 4,930 pounds per square inch of water pressure", the report found. They died instantaneously.
The tragedy was "preventable", it said.
Investigators found “critically flawed” safety practices at the sub's owner OceanGate Expeditions, and said it used "intimidation tactics" for several years before the disaster to avoid scrutiny.
Much of the blame goes to the Chief Executive Stockton Rush, the US Coast Guard said. He was on board and also died in the disaster. The report found he "exhibited negligence that contributed to the deaths of four individuals".
The company failed to follow safety protocols. It was under financial pressure and had a "toxic workplace environment", using the firing of senior staff and the "looming threat" of being fired to dissuade employees and contractors from expressing safety concerns, the report found.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cdjxp4n2371t
img: Public Domain