News diary 18-24 January: Meghan vs Mail on Sunday back in court and care home vaccine target looms
Monday
Ministers from the Department for Education face questions in the Commons, with no shortage of issues for MPs to choose from. Two weeks into the new year, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has been forced into a trio of high-profile U-turns: closing schools, cancelling GCSE and A-level exams, and scrapping a “food parcel first” approach to free school meals after a furore over the quality and value for money of boxes and another intervention from footballer Marcus Rashford.
Timeline
NHS Test & Trace chief Baroness Dido Harding faces questions from the Public Accounts Committee on the programme’s rollout and effectiveness so far. Harding’s first appearance before the spending watchdog follows a National Audit Office report into the programme which was critical of its record in contact tracing and the delivery of test results. Harding was handed a boost last week, h
Foresight News looks ahead to the key events in the calendar for 2021 that need to be in your news diary. Events are as planned at time of writing, but subject to change based on Covid-19 developments as the year goes on.
January
January marks not just the beginning of a new year but of a whole new era for the UK as it emerges from the Brexit transition period (
1 January). Talks between London and Brussels are still ongoing, meaning we still don’t know exactly what that new era will look like, but disruption to businesses and supply chains are likely either way.