Review of the Papers, Wednesday 16 May

Government

• Plans to revolutionise house sales were thrown into chaos last night by the prospect of a last-minute legal challenge to controversial home information packs. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) said it was seeking a judicial review over the packs, which aim to give buyers information on legal searches and energy efficiency. The flagship government scheme is due to come into force on June 1. RICS said that there were not enough inspectors to carry out the energy checks and that ministers had failed to consult properly on the proposals, which are to be debated in the House of Commons today. The review could block the introduction of the packs, which were due to become compulsory for anyone selling a home next month. Ministers claim that the packs will cut weeks from the house purchase process and significantly reduce gazumping. http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life-and-style/property/buying-and-selling/article1796108.ece
• The health secretary, Patricia Hewitt, was yesterday forced to abandon a controversial online system for junior doctors to apply for training as consultants. In an embarrassing climbdown on the eve of a legal challenge in the high court, she told MPs that the medical training application system (MTAS) would not be used for the rest of this year's interviewing process. Offers of training places will be made within the next six weeks to about 16,000 junior doctors who were selected for interview using the online system, which gave more weight to a crude personality test than to evidence of candidates' medical ability. But Ms Hewitt said a second round of interviews, offering a further 7,000 places, would be conducted by the medical deaneries on traditional lines, using doctors' CVs as the basis for assessing their competence. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk-news/story/0,,2080403,00.html
• The true extent of the mixed wards scandal is finally revealed today in an official report that finds one in four patients are placed alongside members of the opposite sex when first admitted to hospital. Figures released by the Healthcare Commission suggest a report released last week by the Department of Health stating one in six hospital trusts has failed to eliminate the practice were far from accurate. The Commission found patients in all 167 hospital trusts surveyed reported sharing sleeping areas with members of the opposite sex. Overall 25 per cent of the 80,000 patients questioned said they had been placed in mixed-sex accommodation when first admitted to hospital. For those who attended for pre-planned procedures the proportion was 11 per cent.  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/05/16/nhealth16.xml
• Post offices in some of the most remote parts of Britain could be spared from closing in a late rethink by ministers.But the move, understood to help areas of Scotland in particular, will lead to suspicions that Labour is trying to revive its battered fortunes in Gordon Brown's homeland. Alistair Darling, the Trade and Industry Secretary, will confirm tomorrow that about 2,500 post offices will have to shut over the next 18 months. Mr Darling is expected to tell MPs that, with many branches struggling to attract any business, the current UK-wide network of more than 14,000 post offices must be slimmed down to about 12,000. He is poised to confirm the scale of the closure programme, first outlined last December, despite presiding over a consultation process that produced more than 2,500 responses. Mr Darling will attempt to soften the blow by confirming a compensation package likely to be worth on average £60,000 for each branch that has to shut. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/05/16/npoffices16.xml

Conservatives

• Education providers and school sponsors should be allowed to set up national chains of city academies under a single contract, the Conservatives will say today. Seeking to outflank Gordon Brown, the likely new prime minister, on school reform, the Tories also want to boost the academy programme by scrapping the requirement for sponsors of the semi-independent state schools to contribute at least £2m to each project. Yesterday, Mr Brown reaffirmed the government's target of 400 academies, but the Conservatives say this objective will never be reached unless the rules are relaxed and new providers are encouraged to get involved. Sponsors can form federations of academies, but currently must develop and sign a contract for each one. David Willetts, the shadow education secretary, will tell a CBI conference on public services today that the Tories are the true inheritors of Tony Blair's market-based education reforms, which must be pursued to boost social mobility. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/883d9da8-034a-11dc-a023-000b5df10621,dwp-uuid=34c8a8a6-2f7b-11da-8b51-00000e2511c8.html

EU

• Britain is to be offered an "opt-out" from some of the most sensitive parts of a revamped European Union constitution, as Angela Merkel, German chancellor, steps up efforts to negotiate a deal on a treaty. Ms Merkel's allies have identified Britain and Poland as the biggest obstacles to an agreement, but her team remains confident it can end five years of constitutional wrangling at a Brussels summit next month. To help win Britain over, Ms Merkel, who holds the EU's rotating presidency, is said by colleagues to be willing to let London choose whether to take part in police and judicial co-operation on criminal issues when national vetoes in the area are abolished. The move could help unlock an agreement on a streamlined treaty to replace the EU constitution rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005, allowing the bloc to play a more active role in the world. But Poland remains strongly opposed to a proposed change in EU voting weights, while Britain has other concerns about a charter of fundamental rights - which businesses fear could give workers more rights to strike - and a change in the status of EU foreign policymaking. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/036d3f04-0320-11dc-a023-000b5df10621.html