Afternoon.

It’s Thursday 10th September: police are investigating Reform UK’s finances, English mayors are getting new tourist-tax powers, and some disabled people could eventually choose practical support instead of part of their PIP payments.

Kettle on.

📅 On this day: In 1967, Gibraltar held its first sovereignty referendum, with 12,138 people voting to retain links with Britain and just 44 choosing Spanish sovereignty. The date is now celebrated as Gibraltar National Day.

The Metropolitan Police have opened a criminal investigation into allegations that Reform UK may have broken electoral laws governing foreign donations. The investigation follows an undercover Channel 4 News report in which people posing as representatives of a wealthy American donor discussed potential funding with senior Reform figures. UK political parties generally cannot accept donations from foreign individuals who are not registered UK voters.

No illegal donation was ultimately made during the undercover operation, and the opening of an investigation does not mean an offence has been established. Reform denies wrongdoing and says it will cooperate fully with police. Two party advisers have resigned following the broadcast. The Electoral Commission is also considering the information, but says any potential attempt to evade donation rules is a matter for police.

So for now, the important development is fairly simple: allegations that began with an undercover investigation are now the subject of a police investigation.

English mayors are set to get the power to charge a tourist tax on overnight stays in hotels, B&Bs and short-term rentals such as Airbnbs. The idea itself was announced last year, but we now have a clearer idea of how it could work. The charge is expected to be a percentage of the accommodation bill, with reports suggesting there will be no national cap.

That does not mean every hotel in England is about to add another charge. Mayors would decide whether to introduce a tourist tax in their area and how much to charge, following local consultation. The powers also still need to make their way through Parliament and are not expected to be available immediately.

The government says the money could be spent locally on things such as transport, infrastructure and supporting tourism. Hospitality businesses aren't keen, arguing that another charge could make UK breaks more expensive and hurt an industry already dealing with high costs.

Disabled people could eventually be offered the choice of swapping part of their Personal Independence Payment (PIP) for practical support under emerging proposals for an overhaul of the benefit. PIP is a non-means-tested benefit designed to help people with the extra costs of living with a long-term health condition or disability. At the moment, it is paid in cash.

An expert committee advising the government has suggested claimants could instead choose to receive some support through things such as specialist equipment, services, home adaptations or training. Cash would remain the foundation of PIP, and this would be an option rather than everyone suddenly receiving a mobility aid instead of money.

Other ideas include fewer reassessments for people with lifelong conditions, faster claims for terminally ill people and changing assessments to better account for conditions that fluctuate. The important caveat is that none of this is government policy yet. These are emerging recommendations being tested with disabled people before the wider PIP review reports to ministers later this autumn.

People in England will soon be able to get treatment for five more common conditions directly from participating pharmacies. From this autumn, qualified pharmacists will be able to assess and prescribe medicines for certain cases of migraines, acne, scabies, ear infections and allergic rhinitis, without patients needing to see a GP first.

It's an expansion of Pharmacy First, which already lets pharmacists treat several common conditions. The idea is to make straightforward treatment easier to get while freeing up GP appointments for people who need them.

After years of resisting conventional online shopping, Primark is launching home delivery in Great Britain. The retailer already offers Click & Collect but has long argued that delivering its relatively cheap clothes directly to customers didn't make financial sense. Apparently the sums now work. Primark has bought an automated fulfilment centre in Sheffield to handle orders, although it hasn't said when deliveries will actually begin. 

AI is already being used in the NHS for things like spotting strokes and skin cancers and taking notes for doctors. Now a commission of NHS doctors and other experts has recommended new rules for making sure those systems remain safe.

The problem is that AI can perform differently once it's being used on real patients in different hospitals. The commission says systems should therefore be monitored throughout their use, rather than treating approval as the end of the safety checks, with important medical decisions still involving a human.

The basic idea: make it easier for the NHS to use helpful AI, without assuming that passing the first safety check means it can be trusted forever.

Last month was the hottest August ever recorded globally, according to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service. The global average temperature was 16.96°C, making August joint with July 2023 as the hottest month of any kind in the dataset. Western Europe also experienced its hottest summer on record.

August was 1.65°C warmer than the estimated pre-industrial average. That doesn't mean the Paris Agreement's 1.5°C target has officially been breached: that target refers to warming sustained over a much longer period, rather than one particularly hot month. Human-caused climate change remains the main driver of rising global temperatures, while a developing El Niño weather pattern (a natural warming of the Pacific Ocean) is adding further warmth.

Applying to become a British citizen now costs considerably more than processing the application itself. Adults applying for British citizenship pay £1,709 to the Home Office, plus £130 for the required citizenship ceremony.

New analysis from the IPPR think tank points out that the Home Office estimates the administrative cost of processing a citizenship application at £324. The government has previously argued that immigration and nationality fees help fund the wider system rather than leaving more of the cost to taxpayers. The IPPR wants citizenship fees brought closer to what applications actually cost to process.

Three rock hyrax pups have been born at Chester Zoo, and there's rather more going on here than three small furry animals being cute. Rock hyraxes look a bit like guinea pigs that have committed heavily to the potato lifestyle, but they're actually part of the same evolutionary group as elephants, as well as manatees and dugongs.

The three new arrivals are called Russ, Spud and Jackie, weigh about 350g each and have passed their first health checks. Which means Spud is both an extremely small potato-shaped mammal and, in evolutionary terms, an extremely distant elephant.

Have a great day.

See you tomorrow.

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