For drivers, the intersection is a canker at the heart of Britain’s overloaded motorway network. For motoring organisations like the AA and the RAC, it is the snarl-up that never ends. The police who patrol the motorway have to deal with more than 100 incidents in a typical day. The slightest problem, such as debris on the overloaded carriageway, is enough to upset the road’s delicate equilibrium and bring miles of traffic to a standstill The only lull comes between midnight and the early hours. If they learn that their behaviour is wrong they may well not develop into more serious behaviour as adults.”The Home Office research, which was carried out by a team of psychologists based in Oxford, Birmingham and Wales, investigated the treatment of child abusers being held in six prisons.Nearly 86 per cent of those who had committed less serious offences and accepted the harm done to their victims, responded to the treatment and had a reduced risk of re-offending. Most of these people start offending in adolescence,” he said.Researchers have built up sufficient expertise to be able to identify the recidivist paedophile from a series of common characteristics.A man who has failed to form any serious adult sexual relationships, and has a criminal record which includes at least four non-sexual offences and two sexual ones, is reckoned to have at least a 40 per cent likelihood of repeat attacks.Mr Beckett said: “We are pretty sophisticated now at identifying the recidivist paedophiles, but what we are not able to do is recognise the younger ones who are just starting off and will become fixated.”Because of the concerns, a pioneering sex offenders project in Oxfordshire, backed by the Home Office, is to begin work with 11 to 18-year-olds who display what are termed “sexually concerning behaviours”.This may include indecent exposure, voyeurism, obsession with pornography, or rape.Trudi Annetts, social worker with the Thames Valley Project, said: “The thinking is that early intervention gives more capacity for change.

It also fears that a ban on smoking in public places could lead to pub closures and job losses.In the UK 120,000 people die prematurely each year from smoking-related diseases. The success rate for quitting smoking “cold-turkey” without help from experts, doctors or a replacement therapy, is about 3 per cent.. THE AUTHOR of the biggest ever Home Office study into child abuse has warned that urgent action must be taken to prevent a hard core of teenage sex offenders from becoming the next generation of untreatable predatory paedophiles. The 200-page report into the effectiveness of treatment programmes for child abusers, reveals that 40 per cent of “highly deviant” recidivist paedophiles do not respond to treatment.
Psychologists believe they have become so entrenched in their behaviour that they may never learn to control their urges or to accept that what they are doing is wrong.Richard Beckett, the author of the report which is due to be published later this month, told the Independent on Sunday the most serious paedophiles could only be treated if they were picked out at a young age.He said: “We need to identify them and really put work into them so we don’t see them for the first time at the age of 40 when they are unsalvageable.”Mr Beckett, a forensic psychologist at the Oxford Forensic Service, said young men under 21 carried out one third of sexual assaults in Britain.”There is a small minority of them that are the recidivist paedophiles of the future. It wants restaurants and pubs to introduce extractor fans to suck up smoke but will stop short of introducing a total ban to avoid accusations of “nannying”. It wants to target people on low incomes but fears that putting patches and gum on prescription would cost millions of pounds.It is examining ways of means testing so that only those who cannot afford nicotine replacement or are in dire medical need will have access to free gum or patches.The government also aims to take steps to segregate smokers in pubs and clubs to help combat passive smoking.

The Department of Health will put the watchdog’s decision out to consultation in the next fortnight. The ruling will pave the way for brands of 2mg nicotine gum, other than Nicorette, to be sold in corner shops, pubs, bars and supermarkets.The gum, which costs about pounds 6 a pack, will still come with instructions for use, advice about storing the medicine and information about possible side effects.The gum is designed to be gradually phased out as the former smoker’s addiction to nicotine lessens.The Department of Health is planning to make nicotine replacement therapy available to heavy smokers who would not buy it in the shops. Nicotine replacement therapies double the chance of stopping smoking.The Medicines Control Agency, a Government body attached to the Department of Health, is staffed by scientists and independent experts.It decided to lift the ban on selling 2mg nicotine gum after an application by the manufacturer of Nicorette, Pharmacia & UpJohn. “It’s absurd that you can buy cigarettes anywhere and at any time of day or night but with pharmaceutical products it’s much more difficult to get access to them,” said Martin Jarvis, Principal Scientist at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund. “We know that nicotine replacement helps people to quit and making it more widely available is a good thing.”The gum, which releases low levels of nicotine when chewed, does not contain the tar which causes cancer. Each piece of 2mg gum produces the same amount of nicotine as half a cigarette.The decision will break the monopoly of chemists such as Boots which are the only retailers allowed to sell nicotine replacement therapies under the current law.The announcement will be welcomed by anti-smoking campaigners who say it will help thousands of people to quit. The Department of Health’s medicines watchdog has lifted a ban on selling Nicorette chewing gum outside chemists to help people give up smoking.
The move, to be announced this month, is the first step in a major review of government policy on smoking and health.It comes on the eve of a White Paper in which ministers will announce plans to hand out free nicotine gum and patches to those on low incomes.Under the current law, nicotine gum can only be sold if a pharmacist is present to give advice on its use.

This means that people who want the gum outside normal chemist opening hours often resort to buying cigarettes to curb their cravings.The ruling on nicotine gum by the Medicines Control Agency opens the route for nicotine patches and stronger nicotine-based products to be sold by ordinary shopkeepers, publicans and restaurateurs. “Stag hunting is the life blood of the moor,” he said.However, Jacob Simon, speaking on behalf of the Trust’s council, said Sir Richard’s wish was not legally binding.”Given the compelling scientific evidence, the continuation of deer hunting is not compatible with the Trust’s responsibilities,” he said. “The Trust’s obligations must come before the personal feelings of the minority who hunt.”. NICOTINE GUM is to be sold in pubs, clubs and corner shops alongside cigarettes, following a landmark ruling by the Government’s medicines regulator. “This sends a message that we’re not just a single issue party,” he said.The ban on stag hunting was implemented last year, after an academic study found hunting caused deer great stress.The Trust and anti-hunt pressure groups claimed Font was a single-issue group and criticised the Font members who stood for election for failing to declare their involvement in hunting.Font member Richard Clegg QC said the ban on stag hunting violated the wishes of Sir Richard Acland, when he donated his Holnicote estate, as he had said the gift was conditional on the sport being continued on the land.Mr Clegg told the meeting Sir Richard had informed the National Trust that to overrule him would be a betrayal of his wishes, and therefore the Trust was guilty of “broken promises”.Amid jeering and calls of “rubbish” he claimed that since stag hunting was banned in the West Country, deer numbers had dropped by 40 per cent and National Trust stalkers had shot far more stags than hunts had ever killed. He said that his success showed that FONT’s view was worth listening to on a number of issues.