Face the Facts

Other episodes of Face the Facts

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• The Dyslexia Dilemma John Waite investigates a controversial treatment that claims to have helped tens of thousands of people with learning difficulties. Insiders tell of their concerns over the way courses were sold, and others question the research the company relies on to show that the treatment works.
• Aid College John investigates the college which claims to train people in international development and equip them with the skills to work in the developing world. He reports on a walk-out by the students and looks at allegations that they are made to work to keep clothes recycling companies going.
• John Waite meets Loay Mohammed, an Iraqi interpreter whose life was threatened by insurgents because he worked for the British forces.
• A Death Unnoticed Every week, councils across the UK fund and organise funerals for people who have nobody else to take care of their affairs. Often these are deaths which have remained undiscovered for weeks, months or even years. In an ageing society, it is an issue expected to get worse. John Waite investigates the background to some of these desperately sad cases and asks whether anything could be done to make them less likely.
• Housing Expansion, Law Evasion John Waite investigates how laws designed to raise the standard of living conditions in `Bedsitland' are being undermined by unscrupulous landlords who are using false documentation to get approval for bedsit conversions from their local authority.
• John Waite investigates why all too often it is the victims of bullying, rather than the bullies themselves, who have to leave schools.
• Jobcentre Plus: Not Working John Waite asks if frontline job centre staff can offer the personalised and professional service that is promised when there are claims that they are badly stretched.
• Losing Out to Lehman's When the Wall Street bank Lehman Brothers collapsed in September 2008, thousands of UK investors were shocked to learn that the financial products they had bought from other companies were tied up with the humbled financial giant. As John Waite discovers, many of those who now stand to lose their life savings had never been told their investments were backed by Lehman Brothers.
• The Long Wait for a Law Imagine a series of arson attacks on the homes next door to you, or bulldozers demolishing homes their owners have been forced to sell. These ares the antics of some of the unscrupulous landlords working in the mobile home industry. John Waite investigates why the government is only now consulting on new legislation to stop thousands of elderly people living in fear.
• High Rise: Low Safety The deaths of six people in a tower block fire in London in July 2009 have revealed poor to non-existent fire safety standards in some similar residential buildings.
• Fraud in France A British man who swindled ex-pats in the Dordogne out of almost £2,000,000 was convicted of fraud by a French court in June 2009 and sentenced to two years in prison. So where is he now?
• Fine Justice Efforts by the Health and Safety Executive to ensure heavy punishment for serious breaches of regulations are often undermined by laws which are aimed at companies rather than the people who run them.
• The Recruits As youth unemployment continues to rise, John investigates a training operation which has left hundreds of young people around the country without the training they signed up for or the jobs they were promised.
• India's City of Tomorrow John reports from Lavasa, built across 12,500 acres in the Sahyadri Mountains outside Pune. One of the new residents will be a campus of the University of Oxford.
• Payment Holiday John investigates the payment processing company which refused to pass on vast sums of money from customers who bought holidays online, undermining the balance sheets of struggling travel firms.
• Fire Safety Disorder John Waite discovers how some publicly-owned buildings fail to comply with the law on fire safety, and how crown immunity means those responsible are safe from prosecution.
• With universities complaining that proposed government funding cuts will lead to a fall in the number of student places and a rise in tuition fees, John looks at the way that universities manage their money.
• How asylum seekers and tax payers are paying too high a price for poor legal advice. Changes to the way legal aid is paid has made the system `unsustainable'. Immigration lawyers can now wait years for legal aid payments to be settled. John talks to some of the hundreds of committed and hard-working immigration advisers who have been forced out of their jobs because they can't make it pay.
• The grieving families waiting years for answers. John Waite investigates problems within coroners' courts and hears why delays to inquests could get even worse.
• When a convicted murderer threatens to kill his ex-girlfriend, why do police ignore her cries for help? John Waite investigates domestic murder and failure by the police to act.
• Firefighters need the right equipment and back-up in order to save lives, but millions of pounds have been spent on state-of-the-art control rooms that may never be used.
• John investigates allegations that speculators are pushing up the price of food worldwide.
• An investigation into the impact of the collapse of social housing maintenance company Connaught, which left 1,400 people without work and £100 million of creditor debt.
• To inform or inflame? Are distorted stories about Muslims in some British newspapers increasing tensions in communities across the UK?
• Six years after the Shipman Inquiry recommended reform of the General Medical Council, key changes have not been implemented. A new regulator to discipline doctors is scrapped.
• John Waite investigates what went wrong at Northern Ireland Water. Tens of thousands of people were left without running water over the holidays, some for over a week.
• John Waite investigates what happened when a Belfast commuter flight crashed, killing six people.
• Advertising Space John Waite investigates the charities and businesses owed money for sports advertising they never received.
• John Waite examines why schools across the UK have been left without the skiing trips they paid for. He speaks to the schools, parents and councils left to pick up the pieces.
• The NHS is paying out tens of millions of pounds a year in compensation to patients who develop preventable blood clots. John Waite investigates why people are dying needlessly.
• John Waite investigates how unscrupulous debt management firms offered to help people pay off their debts but left many vulnerable families owing more than ever.
• John Waite investigates complaints about a company that offered luxury apartments in Dubai to investors in the UK.
• Ramzan Nasir goes by the stage name Zain and styles himself as a former star of Bollywood. John Waite meets him and some of his property company's unhappy clients.
• John Waite investigates the `scandal' that has left up to 1.5 million people addicted to drugs prescribed to them by their GPs, with little support to withdraw.
• Edinburgh needs to find up to 228 million pounds of extra public money if its part-built tram line is to be salvaged. John Waite investigates what has gone wrong and why costs have spiraled.
• Fitness to Practise Presented by John Waite. Criticised for its complaint-handling, with a backlog of work and four chief executives in a little over a year, is the UK's dental regulator up to the task of protecting the public?
• John Waite investigates the policing of crimes that take place on board cruise ships. Does international law need to be changed to ensure victims are protected?