File on 4 Investigates

Psychiatrist Dr Gwen Adshead has spent more than 30 years working with violence perpetrators. In this programme, she visits Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, the largest gang rehabilitation in the world. The charity, which offers training, education, therapy and other services, was set up by a Jesuit Priest, Father Gregory Boyle. He was responding to the so-called “decade of death,” in the late 1980s, as his neighbourhood was terrorised by gang violence.

"There were shootings all the time. I buried eight teenagers in a three-week period", he said.

But this is a good news story. Today, 40 years on, it’s been called one of the most successful gang rehabilitation organisations in the world. Talking to Father Boyle and several former gang members, Dr Adshead explores the Home Boy model of rehabilitation and asks if something similar could work here?

Presenter: Dr Gwen Adshead Producer: Jim Frank Editor: Clare Fordham Production co-ordination: Katie Morrison.

The Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light moved into a former orphanage in Crewe in 2021. It’s American-born leader Abdullah Hashem has declared himself the Madhi or saviour. But earlier this year, 500 police officers raided the organisation's headquarters, leading to protests in the town throughout the summer. File on 4 Investigates follows the group’s journey from Egypt through Europe to discover what brought them to the UK.

Presented by Hayley Mortimer & Emir Nader.

Archive: The Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light / AROPL Studios.

In October 2015 President Xi Jinping was welcomed to Britain on a state visit, the event was seen as the pinnacle of the so called 'Golden Era' of warm relations between the UK and China. Over a decade later, and despite a cooling of that relationship, File on 4 Investigates discovers Chinese state money and influence reaching far into UK companies and universities as China targets British chip and blockchain technology, and asks whether enough is being done to mitigate the threat to national security.

Presenter: Paul Kenyon Producer: Anna Meisel Research: Sze-Fung Lee, independent analyst Additional research: BBC Verify Junior Production Manager: Tom Dunster Production Management Assistant: Tim Fernley Technical Producer: Cameron Ward Editor: Tara McDermott

One doctor dies by suicide every three weeks, according to figures from the British Medical Association.

In 2021, Dr Lalith Wijedoru left his role as consultant paediatrician in emergency medicine, to focus on supporting workforce health and wellbeing, including those working in healthcare.

Given rare access to a wellbeing and recovery retreat, we hear emotional testimonies from the four groups of doctors at greatest risk of suicide - General Practitioners, anaesthetists, surgeons and psychiatrists.

Their stories - of workplace bullying, isolation, fatigue and fear of patient complaints - suggest a system in which doctors are made to feel like machines, rather than human beings.

The concept of 'moral injury' is also a factor - where a doctor is unable to provide the care they wish to give to their patient, due to lack of resources or system breakdown.

Many doctors we hear from say they feel intense internalised pressure to do better - to work harder, and to never complain at worsening conditions. All have suffered from fear of failure, and the lack of the opportunity to decompress after traumatic events in the workplace.

These stories take us to the heart of issues being faced by many or most NHS professionals - and by the ‘system’ more generally.

For Lalith, this sharing of difficult stories is an important pathway to recovery, even a life-saving intervention.

Lalith is spurred on to talk to those who seek to help and support doctors, from charities like Doctors in Distress, founded by the brother of a doctor who died by suicide, as well as those who are studying the problem of why - and how many - doctors are dying by suicide.

Worryingly, there are gaps in available data, because statistics are drawn from coroners' Preventable Death reports. In England, these are a matter for each individual coroner to decide on, so death by suicide is not uniformly recorded.

Having laid many of these problems bare, what hope is there of realistic change and improvement?

Presenter: Dr Lalith Wijedoru

Producer: Amanda Hargreaves

Sound design: Joel Cox

Location recordings: Jon Calver

Executive producer: Dave Howard

A Bespoken Media Scotland production for BBC Radio 4

This programme contains reference to suicide. If you've been affected by issues raised in this programme, you can find out more about organisations that can help by going to www.bbc.co.uk/actionline.

There are also specific resources available to doctors and healthcare workers - some links to these below.

NHS Practitioner Health https://www.practitionerhealth.nhs.uk/

British Medical Association (confidential helpline with counselling and peer support for doctors and medical students https://www.bma.org.uk/advice-and-support/your-wellbeing/wellbeing-support-services/counselling-and-peer-support-services

Department of Health and Social Care (text message service - support available for workers in NHS England) https://www.england.nhs.uk/supporting-our-nhs-people/support-now/

Doctors In Distress https://doctors-in-distress.org.uk/

You Okay Doc? https://youokaydoc.org.uk/

NHS Employers (Suicide Prevention/Postvention Toolkit) https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/working-together-to-prevent-suicide-in-the-nhs

Coroners are called to investigate sudden, unexpected and violent deaths. In the more complex cases, they open an inquest.

The BBC's social affairs correspondent Michael Buchanan has seen many coroners in action and reported from many inquests.

For this programme we follow the inquest of Daniel Lindsay, who died in 2023 aged 41 in a Surrey care home, as we ask wider questions about coroners courts in England and Wales. Are they operating as well as they could and are there ways they could be better?

We discuss claims the system is ‘chronically under-funded’, even 'broken'. We ask why there is such variation and inconsistency between different coroners – a so-called ‘postcode lottery'.

We hear from Daniel Lindsay’s cousins as we explore what it is like for a bereaved family to go through an inquest and ask whether the interests of relatives should be given a higher priority.

The Chief Coroner in England and Wales Alexia Durran responds to concerns and explains what she is doing to make the service more responsive and accountable.

Details of advice and support with bereavement, or end of life care are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline.

Producer: Leela Padmanabhan Sound design: Hal Haines

Operation Venetic was the UK’s largest-ever law enforcement operation, following the infiltration of the encrypted communications network, EncroChat.

Among those arrested was Faye Dunn, a former international footballer who had become involved as an administrator in an international operation to supply drugs. After three years in prison, Faye has now completed her sentence and is rebuilding her life away from the drugs trade.

In prison, Faye saw close-up the disastrous effect drug abuse has on users for the first time.

In this File on 4 investigation, Danny Shaw explores the unexpected consequences of the EncroChat operation, as prisons struggle to cope with organised criminals behind bars. Speaking publicly for the first time, Faye tells Danny the story of how she stepped off a plane at Manchester Airport and straight into the hands of the police.

EncroChat was a mobile phone network used almost exclusively by organised criminals. When it was compromised by French and Dutch police, it supplied the biggest windfall of criminal intelligence in British history. It allowed police to view entire chains of communication used to coordinate the international drugs trade.

In the context of the decades-old ‘War on Drugs’, it was a bunker-busting super-weapon, unlikely ever to be surpassed in law-enforcement terms.

Thousands were arrested. Tonnes of drugs and millions in cash were seized. Weapons, ammunition and digital trails stretching across the global drug trade were uncovered. Major players were jailed. The police called it a once-in-a-lifetime victory.

But six years later, has this Hollywood-style policing operation made an impact on the supply of drugs on our streets?

Has it truly disrupted the drug trade – or simply shifted it?

And with law enforcement and custody costing hundreds of millions of pounds, are there other ways of reducing the harm cased by drugs?

Danny visits cities across Britain to look at programmes that aim to reduce demand for drugs - the other side of this most lucrative business model.

Presenter: Danny Shaw Producer: Beth McLeod Technical Producer: Steve Wyatt Executive Producer: Andrew Wilkie Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith Image: Andy Aitchison A Prison Radio Association production for BBC Radio 4

A Romanian Ransom uncovers one of the Cold War's strangest secrets - a covert trade in which Jewish lives were bought and sold for livestock and cash. In 1958, MI5 agents watch pigs being loaded onto a plane in Hertfordshire, bound for Communist Romania. The man behind it, Henry Jakober, was a London livestock trader with hidden ties to Romanian intelligence.

The documentary follows Andrea Bernard and Radu Horaud, two children raised in communist Romania, where Jews faced decades of persecution, from the wartime Holocaust through Ceaușescu's secret police. Both hid their Jewish identity growing up, and both were separated from their parents, who defected to the West. Their reunions, in Tel Aviv and Paris, hinged on a name neither had heard before - Jakober.

Historians and the families reveal how Jakober brokered exit visas for desperate Romanian Jews, paid for with pigs, cattle, and farm equipment, later escalating to cash running into millions. Mossad, alarmed at first, ultimately co-opted the scheme, and Ceaușescu expanded it into an industrial operation, selling around 100,000 Jewish lives for tens of millions of dollars, while his secret police profited from the proceeds.

The documentary wrestles with Jakober's legacy - a Schindler-like rescuer, or a profiteer trading in human freedom? Through testimony and declassified files, we trace the moral complexity of a scheme that reunited families while treating them as commodities.

A Message Heard Media production for BBC Radio 4

The quality of maternity care in hospitals across the country has been in the spotlight following a series of scandals. On File on 4 Investigates families allege serious failings of care at the Countess of Chester maternity unit - the same hospital where neonatal nurse Lucy Letby was convicted of murdering and attempting to murder 14 babies.

We speak to families about their experiences and ask what implications the quality of maternity care could have had on the Letby case.

Presenter: Stephanie Hegarty Producer: Ben Robinson Production Co-ordinators: Tom Dunster and Tim Fernley Technical Producer: Nicky Edwards Editor: Tara McDermott

Details of organisations offering information and support with traumatic birth or child bereavement are available on the pregnancy related issues page at www.bbc.co.uk/actionline

Whistleblower Simon Andriesz reveals how he unearthed evidence that US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had failed to disclose a business relationship with the paedophile financier, Jeffrey Epstein. The British broker, who worked at one of Lutnick’s Wall Street firms, made the discovery in the Epstein files, some of which were released earlier this year.

Mr Andriesz also speaks for the first time about the personal cost of disclosing what was going on inside one of the companies then run by Howard Lutnick and his decade-long battle with courts and regulators. And he reveals how Mr Lutnick's firm was keen to agree a $1m deal with the former Prince Andrew for introductions to wealthy individuals and sovereign institutions.

This programme has been edited since it was first released to correct errors in dates.

Presenter: Andy Verity Producer: Rob Byrne Production Co-ordinators: Tom Dunster & Tim Fernley Technical Producer: Cameron Ward Editor: Tara McDermott

Last year a Parliamentary Report concluded that between 1949 and 1976, around 185,000 babies of unmarried mothers were put up for adoption in England and Wales, many of these by force. For File on Four, The Skewer’s Jon Holmes investigates whether he was one of them.

Jon Holmes has always known he was adopted, but was never very interested in searching for his birth parents until results of a recent DNA test proved he was of Irish heritage and his curiosity was piqued.

A large folder arrives from Warwickshire County Council and slowly Jon begins to unpick the story of his life and the world he was born into. As secrets of Jon’s past are revealed, a Parliamentary Report by the Committee on Human Rights is published detailing shocking and vivid accounts of mothers being forced into giving up their babies by a society that outcast and shamed them at every turn.

What will Jon discover about his own family? What truths will he uncover as he speaks to mothers forced into handing their newborns over, as well as fellow adoptees about the damaging and traumatic culture he was born into?

Government has always denied any responsibility and is refusing demands for an apology, but is that really the case?

As Jon slowly finds out more about his own past, he also investigates the impact of this era and asks where does responsibility for this societal culture lie… and can it ever be repaired?

Presenter: Jon Holmes Producer: Elizabeth Foster

File on 4 Investigates concerns about how some strict discipline measures are being implemented in schools across England.

We discovered students internally excluded for around 20% of their lesson time, and some much longer. The Outwood Grange Academy in Wakefield put one pupil in an isolation booth for more than half of the academic year.

We hear from a mother in Devon whose son Taylor took his own life, weeks after he’d expressed his frustration at what he saw as his school, Ivybridge Community College’s punitive and illogical rules.

Presenter: Jane Deith Producer: Anna Meisel Production Co-ordinators: Tim Fernley & Tom Dunster Technical Producer: Cameron Ward Editor: Tara McDermott

This programme contains reference to suicide and self harm.

If you've been affected by some of the issues raised in this programme you can find out more about organisations that can help by going to www.bbc.co.uk/actionline.

File on 4 Investigates how Immigration Enforcement officers are tackling sham marriages. Claire Jones follows Home Office officials as they apprehend people entering into, and organising fake marriages in order to circumvent the UK’s immigration laws. She discovers details of criminal gangs charging people up to £30,000 for a partner and 'marriage pack', a set of photos and documents designed to create a convincing back story of the fake relationship. After File on 4 Investigates asked the Home Office why more statistics are not available on suspected fake marriages, they have now committed to regularly publishing these numbers 'in due course'.

Presenter: Claire Jones Producer: Ashley Kennedy Editor: Tara McDermott Production Co-ordinators: Tim Fernley & Tom Dunster Technical Producer: Richard Hannaford

The Church of England is confronting difficult questions over a £100 million fund to address its historic links to slavery. Aleem Maqbool hears from clergy, historians and politicians as he explores the arguments over reparations, responsibility and whether the Church can make amends for sins of the past.

Presenter: Aleem Maqbool Producers: Hayley Mortimer & Catherine Wyatt Technical Producer: Cameron Ward Production Co-ordinators: Tom Dunster & Tim Fernley Editor: Tara McDermott

Liv Nervo is one of the world’s most successful female DJs, who along with her twin sister, make up NERVO. She was starting a family with a man she believed was the love of her life - but at six months pregnant, she discovered he had been living a double life. She says she entered the relationship under false pretences and wouldn't have consented to sex had she known the truth about his other relationship.

What happened to her reveals an intense debate about consent, the law and a lesser-known form of domestic abuse called reproductive coercion.

G for guidance - this programme contains strong language.

Presenter: Alys Harte Producer: Ben Robinson Technical Producer: Nicky Edwards Production Manager: Tom Dunster Editor: Tara McDermott

Hair Strand Tests can show if parents have been using drink or drugs. Such tests play can a central part in Family Court hearings every year as judges decide whether children should go into care or not. Some barristers have been raising the alarm over the way the tests are presented and interpreted in the Famly Court. And, for the first time, File on 4 Investigates talks to mothers who nearly lost their babies – thanks to hair strand tests.

Presenter: Sanchia Berg Senior Producer: Anna Meisel Producer: Mary O'Reilly Technical Producer: Kelly Young Production Co-ordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Tara McDermott

Image: Lead Senior Scientist Dr Ellie Menzies carrying out a hair strand test

As the government plans major reform of the England's Special Educational Needs system, File on 4 Investigates goes back to the floor, spending time with councils as funding decisions are made and with families trying to navigate a system in flux.

From home-schoolers in Whitley Bay to getting on board a school bus in Hackney, we'll hear about the challenges of delivering services to tens of thousands of children with SEN each year. As the number of young people who need extra support rises how will Councils balance their books?

Over a hundred schools have closed in England in the last five years. Analysis by the BBC’s Data team has shown that pupils with special educational needs have been disproportionately affected by school closures. These pupils made up 29% of those whose school has closed, which is higher than the national average.

We'll hear how the disruption of a school closing can affect those with additional needs, and their families.

Presenter: Hayley Clarke Producer: Nicola Dowling Technical Producer: Craig Boardman Production Co-ordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Tara McDermott

(Thanks also to the BBC News Data Journalism team)

Police have dealt with scores of cases involving home-made 3D printed guns in the UK in the last three years. Data obtained by File on 4 Investigates from the National Crime Agency shows that criminals and extremists have attempted to manufacture the weapons.

We hear from police who successfully prosecuted a group who had manufactured printed firearms to sell on to criminal gangs. As Adrian Goldberg asks, how much of a threat are these printed weapons in the UK and what can be done to deter people from making them?

Producer: Paul Grant Technical Producers: Cameron Ward & Nicky Edwards Production Co-ordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Tara McDermott

Finance professionals who paid thousands for training courses in Dubai seemingly endorsed by a government official say they were duped by the British businessman behind them. Participants in the 12-week “accelerator” programmes say they provided little in the way of useful training, while the millions in potential investment offers promised to graduates never materialised.

File on 4 Investigates a trail of deception left by the British “finfluencer” behind the course.

Presenter: Yemisi Adegoke Producer: Rob Byrne Technical Producer: Cameron Ward Production Co-ordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Tara McDermott

DNA detectives track down the British soldiers who fathered children in Kenya then disappeared, leaving the children and their mothers without support.

With exclusive access to every stage of this cutting-edge process, we follow as a team of lawyers and a leading geneticist travel to Kenya. We witness the groundbreaking legal and scientific detective work used to find the missing military dads.

Lawyers believe British soldiers stationed at the army base in Nanyuki, Kenya, may have fathered hundreds of children over decades — the oldest we meet is now 70 the youngest just three years old.

What’s at stake is not only the reputation of the British armed forces and the UK’s post-colonial legacy. The mixed-heritage children have in some cases been ostracised by their communities and denied a chance of British citizenship since birth.

Presenter: Ivana Davidovic Producer: Josephine Casserly

A Long Form Audio production.

Jack Butcher investigates allegations that children in West German welfare institutions were subjected to widespread medical abuse, including medical experiments.

During the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, many children found themselves in West Germany's sprawling network of children's institutions. In recent years, Germany has been shocked by revelations that some were used as guinea pigs for powerful new drugs, including potent anti-psychotics, as doctors worked hand in hand with pharmaceutical companies to observe the effects of new medications on young children.

The allegations were first brought to public attention by Sylvia Wagner, a pharmaceutical historian who grew up in a care home, and whose own brother was a victim of medical abuse.

Pulling together Sylvia's research, speaking to victims and digging through the documentation, Jack Butcher and reporter Ilona Toller, who led a major investigation of the scandal for German national radio, lay bare the horrendous human cost and tell the story of the tenacious activists who have challenged the conscience of their nation.

Producer and Presenter: Jack Butcher With reporting from Ilona Toller and Anouk Millet, and additional research by Leonie Mombaur. Executive Producer: Robert Nicholson Sound Design: Phoebe McIndoe Mix: Arlie Adlington A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4

White disadvantaged girls are being overlooked, school leaders are warning. Whilst white working-class boys remain one of the worst performing group in their GCSEs, white girls from low income homes aren’t much further behind them.

File on 4 Investigates has worked with the BBC Data team to compare 2025's GCSE results in England with those of 2019. The team found that white working class girls in England have seen some of the biggest declines in attainment since 2019 - with just 38 percent of these students passing their English and Maths exams. All girls are down by 1.6 percentage points at GCSE but low-income white British girls are down by 6.4 percentage points. Cutting the link between 'background and success' and halving the 'disadvantage gap' is something the Department for Education has pledged to tackle.

In this programme we examine what is behind the decline for this group of girls and meet school leaders who are working to reverse it.

Reporter: Hayley Mortimer Producer: Ashley Kennedy Technical Producer: Cameron Ward Production Coordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Tara McDermott

What happens when the sperm or egg donor you choose isn’t the one you get? Northern Cyprus is a sun-soaked haven for affordable IVF. But behind the glossy clinic websites, parents are discovering their chosen sperm or egg donors might not have been used. For File on 4 Investigates Anna Collinson follows parents searching for answers and children wondering where they have come from.

File on 4 Investigates Sunshine & Secrets: The hidden side of IVF

Producer: Jo Adnitt Executive Producer: Rob Brown Technical Producer: Nicky Edwards Production Co-ordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Tara McDermott

Details of organisations offering information and support with infertility are available on the Pregnancy related issues page at bbc.co.uk/actionline.

The UK was once a world leader in heart and lung transplantation. Pioneering surgeons attracted patients from all over the world. But the NHS has not kept pace with medical and technological developments and today the UK lags far behind most similar countries. It carries out fewer transplants and a lack of resources mean it doesn’t routinely use modern technologies. Many of the health service’s leading surgeons have left to work overseas in recent years, frustrated, they say, at the lack of attention transplant services have received from NHS England.

Through speaking to patients, surgeons and experts, File on Four Investigates looks at what the UK needs to do to update and transform this life-changing service.

Reporter Michael Buchanan Producers: Adam Eley & Paul Grant Technical Producer: Nicky Edwards Production Co-ordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Tara McDermott

President Donald Trump won multiple elections thanks to support from the Maga movement - but cracks have begun to emerge in the broad coalition of America's political right.

The schism first emerged online as Maga supporters-turned-detractors began to criticise President Trump, saying he has failed to deliver on campaign promises they voted for. Maga congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene - once one of President Trump's most vocal supporters - quit Congress last year after becoming increasingly critical of the president over issues such as continued US involvement in foreign wars, the failure to tackle the cost of living in America - and failure to release all of the FBI's files on the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.

But two months prior to her quitting, it was the murder of conservative influencer, Charlie Kirk, which really sent a shockwave through the movement. A power vacuum at the top has been filled by some curious characters, as other activists have fought for control of the space Kirk once dominated.

And when former Fox News host Tucker Carlson - perhaps the most influential thought leader in conservative America - invited Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes onto his podcast, a vicious debate kicked off which continues to this day.

Some Maga influencers say they'll welcome anyone into the fold, but more mainstream Republicans continue to call for the rejection of these elements - and are concerned they could cost the party votes in November's midterm elections.

Warning: This programme features and discusses some anti-Semitic and racist points of view.

Presenter: Mike Wendling Producer: Lucy Proctor Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

As the government’s flagship Employment Rights Act (2025) comes into force, File on 4 Investigates a loophole worrying experts: bogus self-employment. We discover hundreds of workers on government contracts are said to be wrongly classified as self-employed. This we are told is the tip of the iceberg as more employers increasingly choose to put workers on self-employed contracts rather than employing them as staff, without all the rights, bolstered under the new laws.

Some are suggesting that recent changes to National Insurance have meant more business owners are keeping workers off payroll to keep running costs down. We will look at small businesses where it’s become increasingly difficult to employ staff in the traditional way and find that some workers in hospitality for example like the flexibility that job apps can give them when picking up casual freelance work.

Presenter: Tom Wall Producer: Rob Byrne Technical producer: Cameron Ward Production Co-ordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Tara McDermott

Sexual harassment and assault on the rail network is on the rise across England, Wales and Scotland but a lack of CCTV evidence is preventing justice for victims in some cases.

Claire Jones examines how broken cameras and train companies not retaining CCTV footage for long enough has been hampering police investigations. She goes on patrol with British Transport Police on the London Underground, speaks to police and victims about how frustrating it can be when key evidence cannot be accessed and sees some of the newest surveillance technology, currently not available on trains, in action.

Details of organisations offering help and support for anyone affected by sexual violence are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline Reporter: Claire Jones Producer: Nicola Dowling Technical Producer: Richard Hannaford Production co-ordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Tara McDermott

Boxing is on the rise with streaming giants now broadcasting major fights and heavy investment from Saudi Arabia reshaping the sport. But for boxers facing money or health problems out of the ring, help is not always easy to come by. As File on 4 Investigates discovers, some in boxing are now working towards a unified approach across the sport, which would help fighters throughout their careers, but can they make it work?

Reporter: Kal Sajad Producer: Ashley Kennedy Additional research: Clive Hammond Technical Producer: Cameron Ward Production Co-ordinators: Ellis Goodwin & Tim Fernley Editor: Tara McDermott

Details of organisations offering help and support for the issues raised are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline

Virtual Wards, where patients receive hospital care at home, were heralded as one solution to help deal with the bed crisis in NHS hospitals. The system is popular with patients and has had successes, but some health boards in England have put the brakes on and the number of virtual beds has stalled in the last 12 months. Jane Deith meets the doctors on the front line of providing care to patients with acute conditions in their own homes and the people who benefit from being able to stay out of hospital.

Supporters of virtual wards or hospital at home say it's better for patients, saves money and prevents a significant number of hospital admissions. But some doctors question whether the system can make much difference unless it is introduced at scale.

District nurses are the original method of keeping people well and out of hospital. But in the last fifteen years, their number in England has almost halved - down 43 percent. Jane goes out with one nurse on a shift to see the work they do and hears from nurse leaders about concerns that district nurses are overstretched, leading to concerns about patient care.

Reporter: Jane Deith Producer: Paul Grant Technical Producer: Cameron Ward Production Co-ordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Tara McDermott

File on 4 Investigates: Missing Billions examines the changes to the financial system over the past ten years, including bank branch closures and the digitisation of the finance industry which has led to many financial assets being lost, mislaid or forgotten. It examines the scandal of £100 billion belonging to you and me, but kept by Britain's trusted financial institutions.

The documentary solves the mystery of some missing church silver, helps a frustrated ambulance worker hunt an elusive pension and hears from the valiant individuals leading the charge to make changes to the finance industry.

Featuring contributions from: Steve Webb (Former Pensions Minister), Helen Boyd (Reclaim Fund Ltd), Derek French (Campaign for Community Banking Services), Duncan Stevens (Asset Tracing Service Gretel), Tom Storey (Vaults Group), Les Clarke (Assets Recovered Ltd) plus responses from the NHS, South East Coast Ambulance Service, Santander UK and Lloyds bank.

Presenter, Simon Barnes Readings, Russell Bentley, Olivia Mace Research, Bethanie Depreaux Editor, Ross Burman Producer, Ashley Golder Executive Producer, Kris Dyer

A Rakkit production for BBC Radio 4

When a woman reported an allegation of rape against a serving police officer, she found herself in the dock, charged with perverting the course of justice. File on 4 Investigates hears how she went from being a potential victim to a suspect accused of lying.

Over the past decade, hundreds of rape complainants in England and Wales have been investigated for making false allegations. The programme examines when and why the justice system turns on those who come forward, and asks whether the safeguards meant to protect potential victims are being properly applied.

Producer: Hayley Mortimer Presenter: Rebecca Woods Technical Producer: Richard Hannaford Production Co-ordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Tara McDermott

Details of organisations offering help and support for the issues raised are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline

File on 4 Investigates whether the risks associated with the popular hair loss drug Finasteride are understood, after a 2024 review by UK drug safety regulator the MHRA prompted by a lack of awareness of the drug’s side-effects. Finasteride’s most common side effects are reduced libido and erectile dysfunction, affecting more than one in a hundred patients. Some people also report low mood and suicidal thoughts.

As Johnny I'Anson discovers some hair loss clinics are failing to adequately warn customers at the consultation stage of the sexual side effects assocated with Finasteride.

The drug, which is highly effective at halting hair loss, is only available by private prescription for hair loss purposes.

But File on 4 Investigates discovers influencer accounts on the social media site TikTok promoting finasteride, also offering discounts for Finasteride with Manual, a popular UK men's health company. A lawyer expert told us that the videos we found constituted advertising.

As a prescription-only medicine, it’s illegal to advertise finasteride to the public like this. This programme flagged the videos to TikTok, and they have since been removed. The company has also banned three of the accounts promoting the drug, saying they breached its rules. Manual said it was not involved in the making of the influencers’ videos.

Presenter: Johnny I'Anson Producer: Rob Byrne Technical Producer: Richard Hannaford Production Co-ordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Tara McDermott

Details of organisations offering help and support with mental health are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline

File on 4 Investigates reveals new data showing a significant rise in housing disrepair claims, now a growing market for unscrupulous No Win No Fee lawyers. Adrian Goldberg asks, has the Solicitors Regulation Authority learned its lessons from the collapse of the law firm SSB which left hundreds of householders with huge legal bills, and are they able to protect vulnerable social housing tenants from potentially risky NWNF claims?

File on 4 Investigates have been told by 5 major housing providers across England and Wales that housing disrepair claims have been growing significantly.

One social housing provider in the South of England with an estate of 85,000 homes has told us its seen a 375% rise in the number of legal claims launched by tenants in the last 5 years. We speak to John Golding, a 74 year old pensioner living in a housing association flat in Staffordshire about how a canvasser knocking on his door tried to pressurise him into pursuing a housing disrepair claim with a Manchester based No Win No Fee solicitors' firm.

Reporter: Adrian Goldberg Producer: Jim Booth Additional research: Laura Longworth Technical Producers: Richard Hannaford & Cameron Ward Production Coordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Tara McDermott

Do you give homeless people cash? Many people fear any donation will be misspent but a ground-breaking study in the UK is currently recruiting 125 homeless people to receive a large one-off cash payment, paid directly to them. There's no restrictions on what they can buy with the money. It can be used for anything, it’s entirely up to the individual how they choose to spend it. The aim of the project is to see if it will help people move on from homelessness for good. With exclusive access to the ongoing study, Michael Buchanan follows some of those who’ve been given the cash to see how the money is being spent and what impact it‘s having on their lives.

Reporter: Michael Buchanan Producers: Emma Forde and Rob Byrne Editor: Tara McDermott Production Coordinator: Tim Fernley

Industrial firefighting foams are an essential part of on-site safety in UK factories. But for decades some of these familiar canisters contained potentially dangerous, toxic chemicals.

File on 4 Investigates discovers that 3M the multi-billion dollar chemical company responsible for producing the chemicals knew about the risks as early as the 1960s because their own internal studies on animals and tests on workers indicated a possible increase in rates of cancer. Despite this, the company failed to warn its workers of the dangers associated with using the foams for decades and was involved in an environmental accident at one of its sites that led to the chemicals being released into a Welsh river.

The programme obtained never seen before documents showing the regulator warning the company it thought it had committed an offence but choosing not to prosecute it.

In 2004, with evidence of the risks to the environment of the two specific forever chemicals PFOS and PFOA, a report commissioned by the government recommended any remaining firefighting foams containing the chemicals be incinerated. But we discover in the years after that companies struggled to dispose of legacy stock of foams, and, appearing unaware of the unofficial advice, discharged them straight into the sewer with no treatment, in one case with permission from the water company.

3M said that the health and safety of its workers and their families were “critical priorities" for the company.

Reporter: Esme Stallard Producer: Anna Meisel Technical Producer: Richard Hannaford Production Coordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Tara McDermott

Anne Dyer is a trailblazer - becoming the first female Bishop in the Scottish Episcopal Church when she was appointed more than seven years ago. But since then, accusations of bullying and misconduct have dominated her period in charge - even for a time leading to her suspension and calls for her resignation.

Bishop Dyer denies any wrongdoing, while the church itself acknowledges there are deep wounds within the diocese of Aberdeen and Orkney.

Now File on 4 Investigates has discovered new complaints against the bishop, which she says are "totally without merit".

Reporter: Steve Swann Producer: Fergus Hewison Editor: Tara McDermott Production Coordinator: Tim Fernley Technical Producer: Richard Hannaford

File on 4 Investigates discovers a world of lies and blame within adoption in the UK. The BBC has conducted the most extensive Freedom of Information request ever into adoptions that have broken down, finding that more than 1,000 adopted children in the UK have returned to care in the past five years. That is much higher than the figure in a recent government report - but the true number is likely to be even larger, as only a third of authorities said they collected this data as standard practice. Some adoptive parents say they’ve been given so little support that they’ve been forced to return their children to the care system.

This programme explores the scale of the crisis as we hear from parents pushed to the limit, a teenager returned to care and a social worker giving a rare view of the system from the inside.

Producer: Ashley Kennedy & Claire Kendall Reporter: Judith Moritz Sound designer: Richard Hannaford Production coordinator: Hattie Valentine Editor: Tara McDermott

(Photo: Close-up portrait of couple Verity & Ian standing outdoors. Credit: Brij Patel)

Details of advice and support with adoption are available at www.bbc.co.uk/actionline

Multi cancer detection tests or MCDs can detect many cancers through a simple blood test. Many detect fragments of cancerous DNA that have broken off a tumour and are circulating in the blood. They can often then identify where the cancer may be. The NHS is currently involved in the words largest trial of one such test. The Galleri test is made by US firm Grail and the company says its mission is to detect cancer early when it can be cured. Heavyweight investors include Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.

More than 140,000 volunteers took part in the trial and the results will be known next year. If successful, the test may be rolled out further.

File on 4 Investigates looks at how effective such tests are and whether the trial will show it can save lives.

Medical journalist Deb Cohen speaks to one woman whose cancer was found by the test and successfully treated. But she also hears from firefighters in America - where it's available to the public - who say it missed some cancers and some people who got a positive result were found not to have the disease after undergoing diagnostic procedures - a so called false positive.

With many hospitals trusts missing cancer treatment targets, what is the best way forward for the NHS to improve outcomes.

Reporter: Deb Cohen Producer: Paul Grant Technical producer: Craig Boardman Production co-ordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Tara McDermott

An ambitious plan to digitalize the courts was meant to remove the need for hundreds of thousands of paper documents. But File on 4 Investigates has discovered an IT system, introduced as part of a £1bn project, has been plagued with technical faults - causing crucial information to go missing, be overwritten, or appear lost.

The government body that runs the courts in England and Wales has now checked hundreds of thousands of benefit and child support appeals to identify if any were affected by missing evidence. But sources say the IT bug was known about for years before action was taken.

Original journalism by Alys Harte. Reporter: Datshiane Navanayagam. Producers: Lorna Acquah, Fergus Hewison. Editor: Tara McDermott. Technical Producer: Nicky Edwards. Production Co-ordinator: Tim Fernley.

File on Four explores the risks some gay men are taking by habitually mixing their sex lives with drug use. The practice, known as Chemsex has been on the gay scene for more than a decade. It involves taking illegal and addictive substances like Crystal Meth and GHB. While the programme hears from some who say they can manage their use and it heightens their sexual pleasure, others are falling into destructive patterns of addiction, decline and even death. Reporter Mobeen Azhar tries to assess the scale of the problem and hears from medical professionals who fear it could be a crisis that’s going under the radar.

Presenter: Mobeen Azhar Producer: Alex Collins Sound: Nicky Edwards Production Coordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Nick Holland

File on 4 Investigates examines the scale of problem gambling in the armed forces and the devastating impact on those serving, veterans and their families.

A new study seen exclusively by the team reveals nearly half of naval trainees who gambled were at risk of harm. This latest research builds on a growing body of evidence that points to a hidden problem across the forces that’s on the rise.

We ask if the MOD is aware of the challenge and if it’s doing enough to help those in need.

Reporter: Alastair Fee Producers: Jim Booth Technical Producer: Craig Boardman Production Coordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Tara McDermott

When journalist Georgie Styles is sent unpublished videos of farm workers in Britain being ‘treated like animals’, she begins to investigate the dark side of our food system.

She uncovers numerous referrals of labour exploitation, and hears allegations of workers living in moldy caravans, being trafficked, verbally abused and forced to urinate in bottles.

Her year-long investigation goes from farm workers to our favourite supermarkets.

With gripping first-person testimony, unheard recordings and new documents, this File on Four documentary makes you think about the food in front of you in a new way.

Presenter: Georgie Styles Producers: Georgie Styles and Dan Ashby Sound Design: Jarek Zaba Executive Producer: Philip Abrams Commissioning Editor: Hugh Levinson

Abused For Our Food is a Smoke Trail production for BBC Radio 4 and was produced as part of the Bertha Challenge Fellowship.

A van selling coffee and sandwiches from an office car park doesn’t sound like anything special, but there’s one in Swindon helping to keep young offenders out of custody. It’s part of an approach being deployed across the country trying to prevent young people from reoffending by encouraging a shift in their identity.

The idea is to get to know the young offender, figure out what makes them tick. And then, instead of locking them up, find ways of getting them involved in whatever interests them. Selling tea and coffee from the burger van is where those with a culinary eye can learn new skills and start to feel valued for being part of legitimate endeavours. Similar interventions include social enterprises working in bicycle maintenance, hair and beauty and podcasting.

As the adult prison population has soared in England and Wales, the number of under-18s behind bars has dropped markedly in the past 20 years, from around 3000 to 400. File on 4 Investigates spends time with the Youth Justice Service in Swindon to find out how it rehabilitates young offenders in the local community, and asks if the success of the youth system could hold lessons to address chronic overcrowding problems in adult prisons.

Chris Marston, who presents shows on National Prison Radio and spent 10 months in prison discovers that what’s going on in Swindon is very different from his own experiences of the adult criminal justice system.

Reporter: Chris Marston Producer: Beth McLeod Technical Producer: Craig Boardman Production Co-ordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Nick Holland

Main Image: Presenter Chris Marston in front of the Solid Ground coffee van in Swindon.

Up to 80,000 phones were stolen in London’s streets and transport network in 2024, according to the Metropolitan Police. As File on 4 Investigates discovers, gangs are targeting unlocked phones.

We discover that if a phone is unlocked, criminals may be able to access online banking and cryptocurrency accounts within minutes. We hear from one victim who lost £15,000 from a phone stolen from his pocket, another who lost £40,000 in cryptocurrency and about the financial and emotional cost of trying to recover lost assets.

Adrian Goldberg joins City of London Police as they carry out a series of raids as part of Operation Swipe. They have recovered more than three thousand handsets in the last three months alone.

Reporter: Adrian Goldberg Producer: Paul Grant Technical Producer: Nicky Edwards Production Co-ordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Tara McDermott

Have you had your phone snatched? Tell us your story via Your Voice, Your BBC News. Email: bbcyourvoice@bbc.co.uk WhatsApp: 07756 165 803 Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist and have your comments included online or appear on TV/radio.

Image credit: PA\City of London Police

It's a familiar story from the outside. Around 32,000 people are housed in migrant hotels around the UK and protests outside them have been violent and vocal.

Sue Mitchell has spent the summer getting to know a different side of the story - what life is like Inside the migrant hotels - and she's seen and heard some striking things:

Families who have been seeking asylum for nearly a decade;, a stream of prepaid taxis taking migrants to medical appointments and transporting them across the UK, families cooking meals in secret in hotel bathrooms and a system that appears to be broken, according to the people within it. These are the first recordings that have been made of this kind. It's a story that has dominated the news, but hasn't been heard from the inside until now.

All names have been changed to protect the identities of hotel residents and staff

Reporter: Sue Mitchell Producer: Joel Moors Executive producer: Joe Kent Inside the Migrant Hotel is a BBC Studios Production for BBC Radio 4

In a broadcasting first, the BBC has followed a team from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons as it investigates conditions in a prison near Rugby in Warwickshire. The result is a unique insight into the problems faced by the prison system.

This portrait of a prison on trial reveals how under-resourced prison staff are failing to stop copious amounts of drugs being brought in, and are struggling to provide a safe and productive environment in which prisoners can be prepared for release back into society.

His Majesty’s Prison Onley is a category C, medium security prison, housing 740 inmates. Its governor, Mark Allen, says Onley is among the top ten prisons for incursion of drugs via drones and admits many of his staff are too inexperienced to handle the inmates, resulting in frustration among prisoners, and violence.

In its last inspection three years ago, Onley was found to be struggling in various areas, and it doesn’t take the inspection team long to find out that things are, if anything, getting worse.

Inspectors meet prisoners who complain about everything from lack of laundry facilities to failure to provide meaningful work opportunities, or help with their offender behaviour.

One inspector has to intervene when she finds a prisoner ‘spiced up’ and in need of immediate help. Another prisoner is refusing to leave the relative safety of the segregation wing, because he’s being threatened with violence over his debts to drug dealers within the prison. Inspectors discover evidence that officers are too ready to resort to force to deal with difficult prisoners and failing to keep accurate records of their restraining methods.

Prison officers talk about the challenges of trying to deal with violence within the prison and of trying to prevent drugs coming in.

In a lighter moment, lead inspector Angus Jones visits the prison library and discovers a surprising inclusion among books the prisoners are not allowed to read.

The inspection ends with the team meeting to agree how to score Onley against their key criteria for a ‘healthy prison’ and then presenting their conclusions to the Governor.

Presenter: Rex Bloomstein Producers: Brian King and Rex Bloomstein

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4.

Alison Holt, BBC social affairs editor, has been given exceptional access to the clients of a Nottingham charity that works to reintegrate men who have been convicted of sexual offences.

'John, Matt, Dan and Liam', not their real names, are determined to turn their lives around after prison sentences. We hear how they work towards this with the help of the staff and volunteers at the Safer Living Foundation, the only charity of its sort in the country. Always mindful of the victims of sexual crime, the principal aim is to prevent further offending and the creation of further harm.

There are hurdles to overcome - public abhorrence, plus grave difficulties with accommodation and work among them .

The Foundation also runs Aurora, an online advice scheme for people who have not offended but who are worried about their sexual thoughts.

Presenter: Alison Holt Producer: Susan Marling A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4

Leila Nathoo investigates the risk assessment system for domestic abuse, and asks whether it is any longer fit for purpose.

The DASH form is the gateway for victims and survivors of domestic abuse - used by the police, charities and social workers to assess people who may be at risk of domestic abuse. It is deeply embedded in the whole system and plays a central role in deciding what further support victims receive. But Leila reveals troubling evidence that DASH too often incorrectly identifies those at the highest risk, meaning they do not get the support they need. And people across the system tell her that the form has not kept pace with the latest research about domestic abuse. Leila asks those who use the form, those who have studied its use, and those who developed it, what improvements need to be made, and why it has taken so long.

Producer: Daniel Kraemer.

There are over 6,000 abandoned lead mines across the UK leaking hundreds of tons of metals into our rivers each year. With climate change causing an increase in flooding, contamination is likely to get worse. Is this lead ending up in our food chain, water system and blood?

Presented by Lucy Taylor and Dan Ashby Producers: Pūlama Kaufman and Kelly Windsor Burgin Researcher: Charlie West

A Bite Your Tongue production for BBC Radio 4

File on 4 Investigates reveals how surgeons had raised concerns about a faulty replacement knee eight years before its US manufacturer finally decided to withdraw it from use.

Knee replacement surgery is one of the most common operations carried out by the NHS, with over 100,000 procedures carried out each year. It’s a surgical success story - but things can go wrong.

Around 10,000 problematic 'NexGen' knee implants, made by the US medical tech giant Zimmer Biomet, were fitted into UK patients over the past decade or so, until they were withdrawn in 2022.

But File on 4 Investigates exclusively reveals that warnings were given to both the company and the government regulator eight years before the product was recalled.

Reporter Adrian Goldberg talks to patients who had to endure the agony of new corrective surgery and orthopaedic surgeons whose reputations were thrown into doubt.

Reporter: Adrian Goldberg Producer: Jim Booth Story and Development Producer: Nazrin Wilkinson Technical Producer: Nicky Edwards Production Coordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith

Image: Deborah Booker following her knee replacement operation in 2016

Psychedelics are having a moment — hailed as miracle cures for depression, PTSD and addiction. But what happens when the trip doesn’t end?

In Trip Shocked, writer and researcher Ed Prideaux takes a hard look at the risks lurking in the psychedelic renaissance. Drawing on his own long-term side effects from LSD, Ed explores a hidden history of harms: from persistent hallucinations and underground support groups to therapy sessions that crossed the line.

As billionaires, biotech firms and media stars race to mainstream psychedelics, are we ignoring inconvenient truths about safety, science and consent?

Producer: Nadia Mehdi A Tempo+Talker production for BBC Radio 4

In We Are Not A Conspiracy School, Darryl Morris sets out to meet the people behind HOPE Sussex, a community of home educators founded during the pandemic.

On a sprawling site in the East Sussex countryside, a number of families gather to learn together, away from the mainstream. What’s taught there is contested. The media has called it a “conspiracy school", but the founders say it’s a community centre that encourages critical thinking.

What are people actually doing there? And in a world where shared beliefs have fractured, and more are turning away from the mainstream, why do they feel a community like theirs is needed?

Producer: Louisa Adams Sound Design: Craig Edmondson Executive Producer: Ailsa Rochester An Audio Always production for BBC Radio 4

When the parent of a patient in a psychiatric hospital questioned why he couldn’t see CCTV footage of an incident involving his son it led to a series of extraordinary discoveries. Glynn Brown was told that cameras had never been switched on despite being present throughout wards at Muckamore Abbey Hospital, in Northern Ireland. In fact, the cameras had been recording for six months without staff knowing. In all, they captured 300,000 hours of footage which is reported to show appalling abuse and cruelty against patients – many of whom are non-verbal and have complex needs. File on 4 Investigates has spent months examining what happened and highlights how – eight years on from the discovery – no criminal cases have yet come to trial. It also considers why the scandal has not drawn more public outrage, and what lessons are being learned to protect patients elsewhere?

Reporter: Noel Titheradge Producer: Fergus Hewison Technical Producer: Nicky Edwards Production Coordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Richard Vadon

Nine in ten people in the UK who buy a car use finance. The sector is the second largest lender to consumers in the UK after mortgages. But the industry is bracing itself for a Supreme Court judgement which could see lenders forced to pay out tens of billions in compensation for selling deals with 'secret' commissions. File on 4 Investigates hears from industry insiders and those who tried to raise the alarm on a scandal that some believe could rival PPI.

Reporter: Helen Catt Producer: Phil Kemp Technical Producer: Nicky Edwards Production Coordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Lisa Baxter

A deep-dive into the new generation of get-rich-quick gurus and the social media smoke and mirrors some use to shield themselves from criticism. This investigation uncovers the tactics used by some TikTok landlords and online ‘finfluencers’ who use the promise of property riches to sell advice and training to people hungry to make fast money and break free of the rat race.

Thriving in a largely unregulated social media ecosystem, it highlights the intersection of disinformation, influencer culture and power dynamics, showing how unchecked behaviour has far-reaching implications for society and democracy.

When journalist Will Coldwell wrote a long form article about his investigation into property trainer Samuel Leeds, he had hoped that highlighting some of what he saw as the guru’s hard sell tactics and sharing the stories of some of his unhappy customers might lead to him having to change his methods.

But Samuel Leeds, ever keen to tell his own story, co-opted the article and claimed it as a victory - amplifying his own name and brand further.

The report incorporates a full response from Samuel Leeds - who strenuously denies using hard sell tactics or that he seeks to suppress criticism – and maintains that his methods are legitimate and work for his many happy customers.

This is the story of the immersive power of the influencer ecosystem and the invincibility of the personalities that dominate it. It is a story about the limitations of traditional journalism to cut through the content. It is a story about why this investigation isn’t going to work.

Producer: Louise Orchard Presenter: Will Coldwell An ITN production for BBC Radio 4

When a Church of England volunteer in Leicester rejected a proposal to go on a date, it started a (sinister) stalking campaign against him. His stalker was a female preacher. As her harassment worsened, her victim pleaded for help to the police and the Church, including to a cleric tipped to be the Church’s next leader. File on 4 Investigates reveals how their mistakes left the victim feeling they had failed to protect him…

High street gambling venues, known as adult gaming centres, promise a safe and sociable experience; the chance to have a chat, a coffee and a flutter, under the supervision of trained staff. And they’re proving to be popular, with an increasing number springing up across the country, some of which are open 24 hours a day. But File on 4 Investigates hears concerns some venues are failing to protect people struggling with gambling addictions - with devastating consequences. AGC's are supposed to ensure staff are trained to spot problem gamblers and intervene. They also operate a self-exclusion scheme which allows problem gamblers to self-exclude from AGC's. Staff should intervene if they spot somebody who has self-exlcuded and should ask them to leave the premises. It's a sensible plan - but does it actually work?

Reporter: Alastair Fee Producer: Ben Robinson Researcher: Michael Gaughan Technical Producer: Nicky Edwards Production Coordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Carl Johnston

Ketamine was designed as an anaesthetic but its use as a recreational drug is growing fast, particularly among young people. It can have life-changing health consequences, yet the use of the drug increased by 85 per cent between 2023 and 2024. Paul Kenyon investigates the ketamine trade and discovers how tonnes of the drug are able to find their way into the UK undetected.

Reporter: Paul Kenyon Producer: Paul Grant Technical producer: James Bradshaw Production coordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Carl Johnston

Details of organisations offering support and information with addiction are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline

The market where carbon offsets are bought and sold has been projected to grow and grow, as big companies look to prove they can reach net zero. But where achieving reductions in emissions is impossible or expensive, an alternative is to try and arrange for carbon to be taken out of the atmosphere instead. The markets have thrived on linking buyers of carbon offsets - big firms, and even governments - to development projects in poorer countries, where land and labour for tree planting are cheap.

But can these projects be safely verified and measured? Are local communities being exploited to try and make the maths add up? And can the industry afford to admit when a project is underperforming the expectations according to which carbon credits have been sold?

Investigative reporter Max de Haldevang hears from experts and individuals directly involved in high profile carbon offset projects to find out.

CORRECTION: A contributor to this programme states that sales of Plan Vivo credits generated about $100m in 2023-24. In fact, the correct figure is $8.7m. It is also stated by a contributor that “Plan Vivo is relatively niche in terms of registries. They have a market share of about 1%”. To clarify, while Plan Vivo’s market share is about 1%, it is incorrect to refer to the company as a registry; Plan Vivo uses a third party registry to issue Plan Vivo Certificates.

Producer: Robert Nicholson

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4

Nicola Packer went to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital for help after she delivered a 26-week-old foetus in her bathroom. But she was reported to the police - and arrested as she lay in bed recovering from major surgery. She was then escorted to a waiting police van and forced to spend the night in a police cell. File on 4 Investigates hears her story and reveals how, behind the scenes of the investigation, police had serious concerns over her controversial arrest. She believed she was only six weeks pregnant when she took abortion medication during lockdown - but she was prosecuted anyway. Her ordeal lasted nearly half a decade and, she says, it has had life-changing consequences for her. The case has also led to renewed calls from MP's and health professionals for a change in the law.

Reporter: Kate West Producer: Anna Meisel Assistant producers: Jim Booth and Ben Robinson Techincal producer: Richard Hannaford :Production coordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Carl Johnston

The story of Gisele Pelicot shocked the world. For almost a decade, the 72-year-old French grandmother’s husband Dominique secretly sedated her with sleeping pills and anxiety medication and raped her. He invited fifty other men to rape her too - documenting the abuse in thousands of photographs and videos. Dominique Pelicot has been jailed for 20 years. But Gisele is not alone.

One British woman, Kate (not her real name) has told File on 4 Investigates how she confronted the unthinkable – that the man she thought loved her, had been secretly drugging and sexually assaulting her for years. He laced her bedtime cup of tea with medication so he could commit his crimes in secret. Kate talks to reporter Jane Deith about what it’s like to discover you’re married to a monster. Kate’s children describe the devastating impact on learning their father was a rapist.

File on 4 investigates hears from the police detective who built the case against Kate’s now ex-husband, and how he almost avoided being brought to justice after the Crown Prosecution Service initially said there wasn’t enough evidence to put him on trial. It was left to Kate to fight the system to get justice – and keep herself safe.

File on 4 Investgates discovers domestic spiking is disturbingly common in cases of domestic abuse. One academic has coined the term ‘chemical control ’ to describe the administration of medication to physically subdue women. Unlike physical violence, spiking may leave no trace and hence go unnoticed by victims, the police, doctors, and social workers.

A new named offence of spiking is soon to be introduced. But with much of the focus still on spiking in settings like bars and clubs, will it address the threat behind closed doors?

Reporter: Jane Deith Producer: Emma Forde Technical Producer: Nicky Edwards Production Coordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Carl Johnston

If you've been a victim of sexual abuse or violence, details of help and support are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline

Around the UK, a hidden crisis has been growing over the past eight years.

Since the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, something extraordinary has become clear about many of Britain's high-rise residential buildings. They are nothing like as safe as we had imagined.

In fact, the latest statistics show that more than 5,000 high-rise buildings have faults so serious they pose a risk to life. Clearing this up has quietly become one of the biggest infrastructure challenges of our generation, with a bill totalling £16.6 billion and rising, and a project which could continue for the next 20 years.

Author and housing journalist Peter Apps investigates the building safety crisis through the story of one building which has many of the problems afflicting places across the country.

What is the reality for people living there? Why was it built like this? And with the government's promise of 1.5 million new homes over the next five years, do we risk making the same mistakes again?

Presenter: Peter Apps Producer: Ant Adeane Assistant Producer: May Robson Executive Producer: Anishka Sharma Mix: Mike Woolley

A Reduced Listening production for Radio 4

2024 experienced the wettest period since records began and extreme rainfall events are becoming more frequent because of climate change. So what's being done to protect us from flooding - and is it enough? The Government has said it will build 1.5 million new homes by the end of the current parliament - but File on 4 Investigates has discovered that hundreds of thousands of homes have already been built in areas at high risk of flooding. And a measure to protect new properties against flash floods caused by intense rainfall has never been made compulsory - despite being introduced 15 years ago.

Reporter: Adrian Goldberg Producer: Fergus Hewison Technical Producer: James Bradshaw Production co-ordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Carl Johnston

Pet ownership has rocketed since the covid pandemic, but so have vet prices. In fact, bills have increased by more than 60% in the last ten years. The Competition and Markets Authority is so concerned about the increases it has a launched an investigation into the industry and is due to reveal its findings this year. Datshiane Navanyagam investigates the pet industry and the corporate takeover of high street vets – talking to whistleblowers about how they feel they're being measured on the amount of money they bring in.

Reporter: Datshiane Navanayagam Producers: Jim Booth and Tom Wall Technical Producer: Richard Hannaford Production Coordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Carl Johnston

Every year the UK produces around 50 million tyres for disposal. They’re supposed to be sent for recycling. Instead, big money is being made by diverting tyres to illegal and dangerous 'pyrolysis' plants they're melted down to extract oil and steel. File on 4 Investigates, together with a team of journalists from Source Material, a not-for-profit group specialising in climate and corruption, follow the tyres from the UK to India using tracking devices. The team discovers just how large scale this largely illicit business has become. Earlier this year, a makeshift pyrolysis plant exploded near Mumbai, killing four people. It had been processing tyres from abroad, almost certainly Europe and the UK. Reporter Paul Kenyon confronts a tyre trader in the north of England who admits to shipping his waste tyres to India for pyrolysis.

Reporter: Paul Kenyon Producer: Anna Meisel Technical producer: Craig Boardman Production coordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Carl Johnston

At least two women are murdered every week in the UK in a domestic abuse situation. Newspapers often call it a crime of passion. ‘He lost control’. But what if that’s not true? What if there was a blueprint that, if recognised, could save a woman’s life?

The Homicide Timeline contains eight stages that track the escalation of a controlling relationship from before a couple even meet right up to homicide. Families often say “I wish I’d known”. This programme will tell them the signs to look out for so that they do know, and can stop it.

File on 4 Investigates tells the story of Kasibba – a woman locked up as a schoolgirl in a mental health hospital. She languished there for 45 years - despite not being mentally ill. She was finally freed two years ago after the intervention of a rookie psychologist. Reporter Carolyn Atkinson asks why so many autistic people and/or those with a learning disability, including children, are still locked up and why successive governments have failed to meet their promises to move people from hospital to home.

Reporter: Carolyn Atkinson Producer: Ben Robinson Technical Producer: Nicky Edwards Production Coordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Carl Johnston

File on 4 Investigates goes to Burnley in Lancashire to meet the young people and their families as they grapple with a ketamine epidemic. Used in human and veterinary medicine as an anaesthetic, experts say the drug is being used by increasing numbers of young people because it's cheap, easy to obtain and fashionable. But the health implications can be catastrophic - even fatal. It can cause mental health problems and irreversible bladder and kidney damage. Reporter Jane Deith hears from the Burnley vicar who has had to set up a support group for desperate parents; families whose children have experienced addiction, grooming, abuse and ill health and a young man who is being forced to undergo gruelling medical treatment for what’s known as “ketamine bladder”.

Reporter: Jane Deith Producers: Jill Collins and Nicola Dowling Technical producer: Richard Hannaford Production coordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Carl Johnston

With the billions he made at the expense of Russian taxpayers, Roman Abramovich bought six luxury superyachts over the years. Among them were the 162-metre-long Eclipse, with swimming pools, helipads and a missile defence system - and the Pelorus - sometimes lent to Chelsea footballers.

They could each cost up to one and a half million dollars just to re-fuel. If they’d been declared as being for his own personal use, VAT would have been payable on costs like that. Instead, for more than a decade, tax authorities were led to believe the superyachts were being rented out to commercial customers. Financial investigations correspondent Andy Verity working with The Bureau of Investigative Journalism and The Guardian discovers that the firms renting the boats ultimately belonged to a trust held by - Roman Abramovich. Under the scheme devised for him, the sanctioned oligarch was hiring out his superyachts - to himself. Mr Abramovich has denied either directing or knowing of any deception.

Reporter: Andy Verity Producer: Paul Grant Editor: Richard Vadon

Tens of thousands of children and young people across the UK suffer from severe forms of epilepsy which are resistant to treatment. For those with intractable epilepsy the options for treatment are limited and the risk of a catastrophic seizure is very real. But a growing body of evidence has pointed to cannabis having a positive effect on preventing seizures even in people who don't respond to other drugs. In 2018, medicinal cannabis was legalised following a high profile campaign led by parents of children with intractable epilepsy. They hoped the change in the law would lead to the drug becoming widely available on the NHS. But more than six years later File on 4 Investigates has discovered families going to extreme lengths to access a drug they say is keeping their children alive. Reporter Alastair Fee meets families who claim they have been forced to give their children illegal cannabis sourced online and follows others who regularly break the law importing medicine from the Netherlands.

Michael Buchanan examines why the University Hospitals Sussex NHS trust, once considered one of England’s best, has now got the largest number of patients waiting over 18 months for treatment. On top of this there is a growing police investigation into allegations of poor care.

Rporter: Michael Buchanan Producer: Charlotte Rowles Technical Producer: Richard Hannaford Production Coordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Richard Vadon

The BBC's religion editor Aleem Maqbool hears from sexual abuse victims who say they were let down by senior church leaders for decades. Priest David Tudor was allowed to continue working within the Church of England - despite widespread concerns about his behaviour. Now there are calls for the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell to resign over his handling of the case. He is due to take temporary charge of the church in the New Year following the resignation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby. The Church of England says File on 4's investigation into the case of David Tudor has 'revealed a catalogue of past safeguarding decisions, that allowed someone who was considered a risk in the 1980s to return to ministry in the 1990s.' This, they say, should never have happened.

Reporter: Aleem Maqbool Producers: Steve Swann and Hayley Mortimer Technical producer: Craig Boardman Production coordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Carl Johnston

Universities in the UK are facing a financial crisis, and with fears some may become bankrupt many institutions are making savings by cutting courses and staff numbers. Falling numbers of international students, who pay higher fees than their domestic counterparts, is partly to blame for the funding gap. File on 4 investigates if universities have become too reliant on overseas students, in some cases favouring the ability to pay over academic ability and overlooking the poor English language skills of some of those they enrol - even ignoring concerns over cheating. It also hears from a whistleblower about the multi-million-pound recruitment industry that feeds students from abroad into universities here – all at a cost.

Reporter: Paul Kenyon Producer: Fergus Hewison Technical Producer: Craig Boardman Production Coordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Carl Johnston

The government has pledged to stop using hotels to house asylum seekers. But in early November nearly three hundred people were moved into a hotel in Altrincham in Greater Manchester. The decision has provoked widespread concerns from the community and there are fears that far right protestors could target the premises. It follows violent demonstrations outside hotels in Rotherham, Hull, Tamworth, Manchester, Aldershot and Bristol in the summer.

Hotel accommodation is often provided in some of the UK’s poorest communities where residents are already facing difficulties in accessing vital services. So what is the government’s plan to stop the use of hotel accommodation? And when will it end? File on 4 hears from some of those who live in the hotels – and from the communities who live nearby – and discovers who’s profiting from the asylum business.

Reporter: Datshiane Navanayagam Producer: Vicky Carter Technical Producer: Craig Boardman Production Coordinators: Tim Fernley and Ellie Dover Editor: Carl Johnston

This programme contains descriptions of graphic violence. Details of organisations offering information and support are available at: www.bbc.co.uk/actionline

A series of scandals involving babies and mothers being harmed in hospital have shaken some people’s confidence in NHS maternity care. As a result, many women are looking for alternatives when they give birth. Some are seeking help from outside of the NHS; including paying independent midwives, and even ‘freebirthing’, where they receive no medical support at all. But how safe is this, and is more regulation needed? Presenters: Rachel Stonehouse and Matthew Hill Producer: Fergus Hewison Production co-ordinator: Tim Fernley Technical producer: Richard Hannaford Editor: Carl Johnson

File on 4 investigates the cosmetic beauty trade after the first death in the UK following a liquid BBL procedure. Jane Deith meets women who have been disfigured by this and other cosmetic procedures, and considers why existing regulation is struggling to keep up with a growing industry.

A beauty salon in Clapham, London is exposed for the first time in this programme by a trainee who is horrified by what she witnesses. Several women have complained, claiming they were injured and disfigured by the treatment they received there. .

Reporter: Jane Deith Producer: Kate West Technical Producer: Richard Hannaford Production Coordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Clare Fordham

When the rock band Oasis announced they were reuniting, 10 million fans from all over the world joined the queue for tickets. It was the UK’s biggest ever concert launch. Tickets quickly sold out and within hours, many were being offered for sale on secondary ticketing sites at vastly inflated prices. File on 4 investigates the online ticketing market to discover who's ahead of you in the queue - and how they're getting there.

Reporter: Adrian Goldberg Producer: Hayley Mortimer Technical Producer: Richard Hannaford Production Coordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Carl Johnston

The number of people being recalled to prison after they’ve been released has nearly doubled in recent years. It has come at a significant cost to the public – but has it made the public significantly safer? Most recalls aren’t for further offending. Could the gains made by the early release scheme be undermined by the huge number of people being recalled to prison?

Former prisoner and filmmaker Chris Atkins investigates the opaque world of prison recalls. He speaks to prison reform charities who say arbitrary recalls drag many further into a cycle of crisis and crime and follows one troubled prisoner over five years, who is recalled four times despite never being charged with any new crimes.

Reporter: Chris Atkins Producer: Alys Harte Technical Producer: Richard Hannaford Production Coordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Clare Fordham

File on 4 examines some of the most contentious statistical, scientific and medical evidence in the Lucy Letby trial. The programme reveals new concerns involving medical evidence presented in court where Letby was convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others.

Reporter: Stephanie Hegarty Producers: Fay Nurse, Ben Robinson and Hayley Mortimer Technical Producers: Richard Hannaford and Nicky Edwards Production Coordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Carl Johnston

Mosques and hotels housing asylum seekers came under attack during the riots that swept across the country earlier this month. The courts have been tough on violent disorder, but File on 4 examines how tackling the possible root causes may require an even stronger effort. Tensions over immigration are still simmering, particularly in areas that have long been in economic decline. Paul Kenyon reports.

Producer: Hayley Mortimer Technical Producer: Nicky Edwards Production Coordinator: Tim Fernley Editors: Alys Harte & Carl Johnston

Fishermen from the Philippines, Ghana and Sri Lanka speak out about how badly, they say, they were treated by a Scottish fishing company that hired them. Most of the fishermen have been waiting in the UK for more than 10 years for their case to be heard. Despite two extensive police investigations, no convictions have been secured for human trafficking or modern slavery. This is the first time the fishermen have spoken out.

Reporter and Producer Monica Whitlock. Music by Jon Nicholls. Mix and Sound Design by Tom Brignell. Production Coordinator: Tim Fernley. Editor Alys Harte.

Image: Fishermen from the Philippines and Ghana who worked on scallop boats.

Over three decades, a priest assessed as posing a risk of “significant harm” to children and vulnerable people worked in the Church of England. But allegations against him didn’t stick, leading to him remaining in post until after he was offered a substantial pay-off. The surprising manner in which he finally left in 2022 raises serious questions about the judgement of Church leaders.

If you have been affected by sexual abuse or violence, details of help and support are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline.

Reporter: Aleem Maqbool Producers: Steve Swann and Fergus Hewison Technical Production: Richard Hannaford Production Coordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Carl Johnston

Camp Lejeune is a vast US Marine Corps base in North Carolina. It’s been in operation since the 1940s and covers a massive 240 square miles. But for years it hid a secret. For decades, its water supply was contaminated with harmful chemicals found to increase the risk of some cancers. It’s estimated that one million people might have been exposed to the toxic water.

But it wasn’t just American personnel who were based at Camp Lejeune. Soldiers from all over the world - including from the UK - also spent time there on training exercises and exchange programmes.

Emma Forde hears from the British veterans and their families who lived and worked on the base and have since suffered serious health problems or seen loved ones die from conditions associated with exposure to the water. But despite a compensation scheme for victims being widely reported in the US, there are concerns that those from the UK are still unaware of the serious health risks they were exposed to. And time is running out.

Reporter: Emma Forde Producer: Andrew Picken Technical Producer: Richard Hannaford Production Coordinators: Ellie Dover & Tim Fernley Editor: Carl Johnston

Image: Royal Marine Captain Joe House and Captain Jonathan Lear handing over to each other at Camp Lejeune.

Project Rescue Children claims to save children from trafficking and abuse, but the BBC has uncovered evidence of false and misleading social media posts. The charity's director, Adam Whittington, has raised thousands of pounds from sponsors and donors around the world. But the BBC has found that unsuspecting children are being used as props, and the rescue centres have no children. Project Rescue Children rejects the BBC's findings and says its work has benefitted hundreds of children worldwide.

Reporter: Hayley Mortimer Producer: Kate West Assistant Producer: Katy Ling Technical Producer: Richard Hannaford Impact Producer: Melanie Stewart-Smith Production Coordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Carl Johnston

There are more empty homes than homeless households in this country. Why?

Filled with cobwebs, windows broken, and rats scurrying about in their overgrown gardens, the UK has hundreds of thousands of ghost houses - properties where no one lives. The UK also has the worst homelessness problem in the rich world. So could we use those empty homes for the people in dire need of a home?

Simon Maybin investigates the phenomenon of empty homes and, over nine months, follows the work of someone trying to turn unused properties into homes for families among the record numbers who are now homeless.

Reporter/producer: Simon Maybin Technical producer: Neil Churchill Production coordinators: Ellie Dover & Tim Fernley Editor: Richard Vadon

New laws aimed at preventing protestors causing disruption, more severe punishments and fewer defences in court have led some to question if the freedom to protest is coming under threat. Josephine Casserly investigates the growing volume of prosecutions against environmental protestors and examines how the criminal justice system is dealing with such cases. She also examines the increasing use of private injunctions by corporations and public authorities to restrict protests at locations such as public roads and oil terminals. They say the orders are necessary to prevent disruption caused by tactics including walking slowly down roads and blocking entrances to businesses, but lawyers acting for protestors say they amount to a "privatised system of justice."

Reporter: Josephine Casserly Producer: Tom Wall Production Coordinators: Ellie Dover & Tim Fernley Editor: Carl Johnston

There are two compensation schemes for veterans who’ve suffered injury or illness as a result of service - the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme - or AFCS - and the War Pension Scheme. The schemes are managed by Veterans UK which is an organisation run by the Ministry of Defence.

But veterans have long criticised both schemes. Some say they reject claims unfairly, and are slow to resolve them. File on 4 has been told in some cases it’s taken almost 12 years for a final decision to be made. How does the system work? And what is the impact on veterans who claim they have to fight for financial compensation for conditions they say are a result of their service? File on 4 hears from one ex-servicemen whose claim took over seven years to resolve, and from the family of another former soldier who took his life after his claim for PTSD was repeatedly turned down.

If you are affected by anything in this programme, details of organisations offering support with mental health and self-harm, or feelings of despair, are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline.

Producer: Vicky Carter Reporter: Datshiane Navanayagam Technical producer: Richard Hannaford Production co-ordinator: Tim Fernley and Ellie Dover Editor: Carl Johnston

In the headlines about NHS waiting lists, children don’t often get a mention. Yet hundreds of thousands are waiting to start hospital for treatment.

Jane Deith investigates the reasons for the gap between adult and paediatric surgery. She hears from children whose conditions are deteriorating, some of whom could be left inoperable if they aren’t operated on soon. NHS leaders admit long waits can have life-long consequences for young people’s development and say hospitals are working hard to tackle the backlog. But surgeons and doctors warn that in the race to cut waiting lists, children risk being left behind.

Reporter: Jane Deith Producer: Alys Harte Technical producer: Craig Boardman Production co-ordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Carl Johnston

The most senior family court judge in England has described the growing use of Deprivation of Liberty orders for vulnerable children as a 'crisis.' File on 4 hears from young people who were held under the order supposedly for their own safety. But they say they were under constant supervision, denied access to their phones and the internet and kept away from their families. Some say they were subjected to physical restraints and even supervised when they were having a shower. And one teenager who was on a Deprivation of Liberty order tells the programme he preferred being in prison.

Reporter: Ashley John-Baptiste Producer: Phil Marzouk Technical Producer: Craig Boardman Production coordinator: Ellie Dover Editor: Carl Johnston

There are some two million people with long Covid in the UK - and most of them - around one and a half million - have symptoms that interfere with day to day activities. Fatigue, breathlessness, heart palpitations and severe dizziness are just some of the conditions people experience.

Currently there’s no test for long covid and it could be years before we know for sure how best to treat the condition. This struggle to get help is leaving some very unwell people desperate - and willing to try anything to get better. There are treatments to wash your blood, high pressure oxygen chambers normally used by deep sea divers. A rainbow of supplements. All with varying degrees of evidence. And perhaps most strongly dividing opinion - programmes that claim to retrain long Covid patients' brains to stop their symptoms. They say they can help people recover from illness by rewiring the brain using techniques to influence physical changes in the body. Rachel Schraer - the BBC's health and disinformation correspondent - hears from people with long Covid who say the programmes didn't work and in some cases made them feel worse. Others say they fully recovered. Reporter: Rachel Schraer Producer: Paul Grant Technical producers: Cameron Ward and Nicky Edwards Production co-ordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Carl Johnston

Manchester City are dominating English football, with a trophy cabinet full of silverware. The club’s success has been bankrolled by money from Abu Dhabi. Now Newcastle United have followed in their wake, with backing from a Saudi consortium transforming a sleeping giant of English football into perhaps the world’s richest club. But with the money comes accusations that the clubs are being used to launder the reputations of repressive regimes accused of human rights abuses, and that the cash from the two oil rich states is being used to exert political influence locally and nationally in the UK.

Reporter: Adrian Goldberg Producer: Fergus Hewison Technical Producer: Craig Boardman Production coordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Carl Johnston

Three years ago, dozens of memory sticks were discovered in a sealed box at a school for children with special educational needs. There was 500 hours of footage which showed children being held in so-called 'calming rooms.' The videos showed the children being hit and denied access to a toilet. File on 4 investigates why a subsequent police investigation and an independent inquiry didn't lead to staff being sacked. File on 4 reveals how staff who were filmed hitting, kicking, and leaving children sitting in urine have not been sacked or referred to the barring service.

Reporter: Noel Titheradge Producer: Annabel Deas Technical Producer: Craig Boardman Production Coordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Carl Johnston

The discovery of 35 bodies and an unknown quantity of unidentified human ashes at a Hull funeral home has become one of the most harrowing investigations in the history of Humberside Police. Linsey Smith investigates what went wrong and hears from some of the many families who've been left devastated by the discovery - some of whom now know the ashes they were given didn't belong to their loved ones.

File on 4 also hears how the funeral industry is largely unregulated and how concerns raised more than three years ago by the Competition and Markets Authority about the storage and treatment of the deceased haven't been acted upon.

Reporter: Linsey Smith Producers: Holly Clemens and Nicola Dowling Technical Producer: Craig Boardman Digital producer: Melanie Stewart-Smith Production Coordinators: Tim Fernley & Jordan King Editor: Carl Johnston

Image Credit:Christopher Furlong\Getty

Slimming World is the leading diet organisation in the UK. It has 700,000 members and, at a time when obesity is spiralling in the UK, it has helped millions lose weight. It has contracts with the NHS and local government. If you meet the criteria, your doctor can sign you up for free. But could the Slimming World diet be encouraging disordered eating by some members?

File on 4 hears from people who believe that Slimming World has seriously damaged their health and destroyed their relationship with food.

Reporter: Josephine Casserly Producer: Immy Rhodes Technical Producer: Craig Boardman Production Coordinator: Tim Fernley Editor: Carl Johnston

Image Credit: Kseniya Ovchinnikova\Getty

Is a new scandal about to engulf the UK's banking industry? Was LIBOR just the tip of the iceberg? Regulators around the world are looking at the way important financial benchmarks have been calculated. These are used to set the value of pension funds, investments and international contracts worth billions of pounds. Financial regulators in the UK, across Europe and in the US are investigating whether the benchmarks have been rigged to increase bank profits - and to short change their customers. Banks are already receiving big fines over the LIBOR interest rate scandal but the focus is now shifting to the way prices in the foreign exchange, gold and interest rate swap markets have been set. Reporter Lesley Curwen assesses the evidence that banks have got together to manipulate the markets and asks what it means for the reputation of London as a global financial sector and public confidence in banking. Producer: David Lewis.

Knowl View special school for boys has become infamous as the haunt of Cyril Smith. Prosecutors now say 'Mr Rochdale' should have been charged with abuse of boys while he was alive. But he was not the only one. In the first of a new series, former pupils in the 1970s, 80s and 90s tell File on 4 how a web of abusers, including local paedophiles and other pupils preyed on boys as young as eight while people supposed to protect them looked the other way. Previous police investigations came to nothing. A new probe is underway, focusing on who could be guilty of a criminal cover up. But what became of the innocent? Jane Deith hears from some of those who experienced life in Knowl View. Telling their stories for the first time, they describe childhoods twisted by sexual abuse. Now questions are being asked about whether the failure to end the abuse at Knowl View led to a culture in which the subsequent grooming of young girls in Rochdale was allowed to happen. Alan Collins, a specialist child abuse lawyer representing some of the men who're suing Rochdale Council over abuse at Know View, believes things would have been different had Cyril Smith been prosecuted and convicted: "That would have sent a clear message through Rochdale and much further afield that there was clearly a problem and that problem would not have been so easy to brush away. I think that had a very long tail and that that tail continued right up until recent times."

Reporter: Jane Deith Producer: Sally Chesworth.

Every year more than 1,500 UK children are diagnosed with cancer. For some the outlook is good but for those struck down by one of the rarer cancers, the prognosis can be a bleak one. Two hundred and fifty children die each year from the disease. Parents have told File on 4 there is a worrying lack of research into new drugs for childhood cancers, with youngsters sometimes offered treatments which have hardly changed in the last forty years - treatments that can have a limited chance of success and which can cause fatal, serious and life-long side-effects for those lucky enough to survive. In the battle to get the most up-to-date treatments for children with some of the most aggressive cancers, increasing numbers of families say they are forced to raise hundreds of thousands of pounds to travel abroad to take part in pioneering drugs trials elsewhere. Meanwhile UK researchers say they face a constant battle for funding. They also warn of a loophole in European regulations which they say stops break-through drugs that have been developed for adult cancer sufferers, being developed to benefit children. As science takes the treatment and understanding of disease to new levels, Jane Deith asks whether enough is being done to give children a fighting chance. Reporter: Jane Deith Producer: Nicola Dowling.

Last month, in the Queen's Speech, the Government announced a series of measures to support small businesses -- including proposals to deal with the problem of late payment of bills by larger companies.

It follows a long history of horror stories about major high street names leaving suppliers and sub-contractors out of pocket because of delays in settling accounts.

Figures produced by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills revealed that 85 per cent of small and medium sized businesses said they had experienced late payment in the last two years and that, in total, there was £30bn outstanding to them.

But File on 4 has found that it's not just in private business that serious problems are occurring.

The programme speaks to business owners who say that that ineffective rules and sanctions have left them badly out of pocket on contracts undertaken in the public sector.

Local authorities, the NHS and other Government departments have strict rules about how long they should take to pay their contractors.

But Jenny Chryss reveals how some small firms are having to cut back on staff because bills still aren't being settled promptly.

And she reveals how big contractors who do get paid on time, often delay before passing the money down the supply chain.

So are critics right when they say the Government's proposed new measures still aren't enough to deal with the problem?

Reporter: Jenny Chryss Producer: Emma Forde.

In many parts of the world, charities are trying to deliver much-needed aid to desperate people living in areas controlled by militant groups. What do they do when counter-terrorism laws ban them from contact with those de facto authorities?

Risk of prosecution has now created a climate of fear in many aid agencies - and the UN wants counter-terrorism policies redrawn to ensure lives can be saved without charity workers risking jail.

Tim Whewell reports from Gaza - and talks to aid workers operating in Syria, Somalia and other places - on the practical and moral dilemmas involved.

Producer: Paul Grant.

On the day a parliamentary committee is due to take evidence about the Yarl's Wood immigration removal centre, Simon Cox investigates claims of sexual abuse and poor health care for the women held there.

Campaigners and detainees tell File on 4 about "a culture of disbelief" which they say exists among healthcare staff and which they claim is putting women at risk.

Serco - the company that runs the centre - insists it provides a good standard of care, but a former member of staff, speaking publicly for the first time, says concerns he raised were ignored by senior managers.

The programme also investigates claims of inappropriate sexual contact between staff and detainees and allegations of sexual abuse by staff.

Several employees were dismissed last year over sexual encounters with women being held at the centre and the House of Commons Home Affairs select committee have called the managing director of Serco to give evidence about the sexual abuse claims.

Simon Cox investigates - and hears why some MPs believe it is time for the centre to be closed.

Reporter: Simon Cox Producer: Sally Chesworth.