![Image]( "Animal rights activists jailed")
Five animal rights activists who intimidated companies linked to Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) in an attempt to close down the animal testing lab have been sentenced to between six years and 15 months in prison.
Sarah Whitehead, 53, Nicole Vosper, 22, Thomas Harris, 27, Jason Mullan, 32, and Nicola Tapping, 29, were all members of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (Shac).
The youngest member of the conspiracy Alfie Fitzpatrick, 21, received a 12-month prison sentence suspended for two years and was ordered to complete 100 hours of community work.
Winchester Crown Court heard, during the sentencing hearing, that the six waged a wide-ranging international conspiracy of intimidation against a host of supply companies to force the closure of Cambridge-based HLS, using Shac as a front. Action carried out included realistic hoax bombs posted to the homes of staff and offices, criminal damage, threats of violence and abusive telephone calls.
Some company directors had leaflets distributed near their home falsely telling neighbours they were convicted paedophiles and others had used tampons sent through the post saying the blood was HIV positive. Others had words like puppy killer, murderer and scum daubed on their houses, cars or on the roads nearby.
The abuse would only stop when the company issued a capitulation statement on the Shac website and cut links with the lab. The total cost of damage and increased security costs was £12.6 million, to around 40 companies targeted, the court heard.
The six were part of a larger conspiracy involving the founder members of Shac, Gregg and Natasha Avery and Heather Nicholson, who used the organisation as a front to intimidate companies under badges such as the Animal Liberation Front or the Animal Rights Militia.
Whitehead, of Thorncroft Road, Littlehampton, West Sussex, Vosper, of Bay View Terrace, Newquay, Cornwall, and Harris, of Somerville Road, Ringwood, Hampshire, admitted conspiracy to blackmail companies and suppliers linked to the Cambridge-based company between 2001 and 2008.
Mullan, of Holloway Road, London, Tapping, of Somerville Road, Ringwood and Fitzpatrick, of Knowle Road, Solihull, West Midlands, all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to harm Huntingdon Life Sciences from 2005 to 2008 under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 by interfering with companies supplying them.
Other members of Shac, including the founder members Gregg Avery, Natasha Avery and Nicholson, were jailed in January 2009 at Winchester Crown Court for blackmailing companies linked to HLS.
Baroness Thatcher is said to be a "lot brighter" following her admission to hospital earlier this week after she failed to recover from a bout of flu.
A spokesman for the former prime minister said that she was expected to remain in the Cromwell Hospital, west London, for several more days to ensure her recovery was complete.
"She is a lot brighter. She is sitting up in a chair in her own room now," the spokesman said.
"I think we are still going to be here for several days yet just to make sure."
Lady Thatcher was admitted to the hospital on Tuesday evening after she had been forced to pull out of a Downing Street reception to mark her 85th birthday the previous week due to illness.
David Cameron has vowed to unleash a "new economic dynamism" as he appealed to business leaders to create the jobs Britain needs to recover from the recession.
Seeking to shift the spotlight from spending cuts and public sector job losses, the Prime Minister promised a "forensic, relentless focus on growth" over the months ahead.
Ministers would be promoting British business and helping create the conditions in which entrepreneurialism could flourish, he told the CBI.
A detailed national infrastructure plan is being published, designed to lever in £200 billion of long-term investment from the public and private sectors.
The Government would also invest more than £200 million over the next four years in technology and innovation centres bringing universities and business together, Mr Cameron announced. "When we say we're going to build a new economic dynamism, we mean it," he said.
He insisted that innovation and job creation in the private sector was essential to help rebuild the economy.
The speech, his first to the CBI as Prime Minister, comes amid concern about the expected 490,000 public sector job losses to be triggered by spending cuts over the next four years.
"In the weeks and months ahead, ministers will be developing detailed plans to turn this strategy into action," he said.
"Everything - from bank lending to skills, green-tech to high-tech, competition to innovation, international trade to local growth - will be put under the microscope. That forensic, relentless focus on growth is what you will get from this government.
"What I need in return from you is a commitment to create and innovate, to invest and grow, to develop and break boundaries. The new jobs, the new products, the new ideas that will lift us up will be born in the factories and offices you own - not in the corridors of Whitehall."
A row over a Government minister's remarks that the unemployed should "get on a bus" to find work has flared up when a study found there were almost nine times more jobseekers than jobs in the city at the centre of the controversy.
Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith said last week that Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales was an example of a place where people had become "static" and did not know that if they got on the bus they would be in Cardiff an hour later and could look for work there.
"We need to recognise the jobs often don't come to you. Sometimes you need to go to the jobs," said the minister, who was criticised by union leaders for being "insulting" to the unemployed.
Research by the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) showed there were 15,000 people in Cardiff chasing 1,700 jobs, while in Merthyr there were 1,670 unemployed people and 39 job vacancies, all temporary and part-time.
The number of people out of work in Merthyr and Blaenau Gwent combined was more than the total number of job vacancies for the whole of Wales, said the PCS.
The vast majority of vacancies in Cardiff were temporary and part-time, mainly unskilled labouring, for just one or three weeks' duration, said the union.
The most popular vacancy on the day the union carried out its research last week was a Christmas job in a well-known store working four-hour shifts on Saturdays and Sundays for the national minimum wage.
Among the permanent jobs was work in a casino or bars. Neither offered help with journeys home afterwards and the last bus out of Cardiff leaves at 11.06pm, the union pointed out.
"Workers from outside the city might be able to get the bus to work but they would not be able to get home," said a spokesman.
"These figures prove it is not a question of people not being willing to work, there simply are not enough jobs for them to do - and there are unlikely to be any time soon because of the Government's plans to cut public spending, including cutting 15,000 more jobs in the Department for Work and Pensions."
Rising numbers of schools are full to bursting point, Government statistics have revealed.
One in five (20.3%) state primary schools, 3,444 in total, are full or have more pupils than they are meant to cater for, according to figures published by the Department for Education.
The numbers have risen from last year, when just under one in five (19.8%), some 3,376 primaries were full.
The figures are likely to raise fresh concerns about a lack of school places in some parts of England, particularly in big cities such as London and Birmingham.
The statistics also show that nearly three in ten (29.3) state secondaries, 916 schools in total, are full or have pupils in excess of school capacity, compared to 28.8% in 2009.
The figures come as parents across England are submitting applications for secondary school places. The deadline set by many councils for applications is the end of this week.
It has been estimated that around £15 billion is needed over the next four years to guarantee every child a school place in a safe environment, according to research published by the Local Government Association (LGA) and the Association of Directors of Children's Services (ADCS) last month.
LGA chairman Baroness Margaret Eaton, said: "Everyone is well aware of the difficult financial climate in which councils are operating. We need to work even harder to ensure that the money that is invested in school buildings represents the best possible value for the taxpayer.
"Our children need schools which are safe, clean and attractive places in which they can learn. Spending money to maintain or replace existing school buildings is unavoidable. Areas experiencing booming birth rates need to be able to expand primary schools so that every child has a place not too far from their home."
The squeeze on school places has been fuelled by a rise in the birth rate and immigration.
A tetraplegic man whose life-support machine was mistakenly turned off by an agency nurse working for the NHS has been left with severe brain damage, it has emerged.
Jamie Merrett, 37, was so worried about the care he had been receiving at his home that he alerted Wiltshire NHS and had a camera set up in his bedroom, which captured the incident in January 2009.
An investigation also found the company that employed the nurse did not have adequate systems in place to check the training staff had received.
Only days after the camera was installed, Mr Merrett, of Devizes, Wiltshire, was left close to death after nurse Violetta Aylward, from Reading, turned off the life-support machine and struggled to resuscitate him.
Mr Merrett was aware of the mistake that had been made before he lost consciousness, unable to speak. He can be heard on the film urgently clicking his tongue as a warning.
Ms Aylward tried to resuscitate him but it took 21 minutes for the machine to be restarted by paramedics, leaving Mr Merrett with serious brain damage. He had been nursed at home since 2002 after a road accident left him paralysed from the neck down.
Ambition 24hours, which supplied Ms Aylward, said it could not comment as an internal investigation was being held.
The BBC said a confidential report by Wiltshire social services, leaked to them, concluded the agency was aware it was required to supply a nurse with training in the use of a ventilator, but the company did not have adequate systems in place to check what training their staff had received.
Despite his disabilities, Mr Merrett had been able to talk, use a wheelchair and operate a computer using voice-activated technology. His sister Karren Reynolds told the BBC his level of understanding has now dropped to that of a young child.
A spokeswoman for the Nursing and Midwifery Council confirmed Ms Aylward has been suspended while it investigates the incident.
David Cameron has vowed to unleash a "new economic dynamism" as he appealed to business leaders to create the jobs Britain needs to recover from the recession.
Seeking to shift the spotlight from spending cuts and public sector job losses, the Prime Minister promised a "forensic, relentless focus on growth" over the months ahead.
Ministers would be promoting British business and helping create the conditions in which entrepreneurialism could flourish, he told the CBI.
A detailed national infrastructure plan is being published, designed to lever in £200 billion of long-term investment from the public and private sectors.
The Government would also invest more than £200 million over the next four years in technology and innovation centres bringing universities and business together, Mr Cameron announced. "When we say we're going to build a new economic dynamism, we mean it," he said.
He insisted that innovation and job creation in the private sector was essential to help rebuild the economy.
But Labour leader Ed Miliband, who was also speaking to the CBI, has warned that Britain risked "sleepwalking" back into catastrophe without major changes in the management of the economy.
He told the CBI that the Government needed to learn the lessons of the financial crisis and that meant introducing a new system of financial regulation, rebalancing the economy and ensuring that everybody was able to make "a decent living".
"Without profound change in the way we manage our economy it seems to me we are at risk of at best sleepwalking back to an economy with the same risks as we saw before the recession hit," he said.
Mr Miliband, insisted he would take forward New Labour's pro-business approach, but modified to take account of changing times.
Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has defended planned reforms as it was reported only one in four of Britain's doctors think they will improve patient care.
Just 23% of doctors agree with Mr Lansley that the changes will lead to higher standards, according to a poll reported in The Guardian.
Two fifths (40%) say patients will not get superior care, and at least 25% "disagree" that the reforms will improve quality of care, while 15% "strongly disagree" about this point.
The doctors' views are made known in a survey which the King's Fund health think tank commissioned from Doctors.net. uk, a social networking website, the newspaper said.
The findings are significant because the 500 GPs and 500 hospital doctors who took part were chosen for being representative - they were not just random, self selecting, respondents, it added.
Doctors are warning that the NHS cannot make the £20bn of savings by 2014 that ministers expect, while simultaneously undertaking a reorganisation that will see England's 152 primary care trusts (PCTs) abolished and consortiums of GPs assume responsibility for the commissioning of services for patients, the newspaper reported.
About 45% in the survey said it would be impossible for the NHS to keep its focus on improving efficiency while implementing that and other reforms. Only 22% thought the NHS could do both at once.
Mr Lansley said: "Reform isn't an option, it's a necessity in order to sustain and improve our NHS. The reforms are far reaching but they also build upon existing designs.
"But we recognise with any significant changes, there may be concerns - that is why we have been consulting on the details.
"We know there is an appetite to understand better what the reforms will mean in practice for individual organisations and patients. That is why we have already announced a programme where GP consortia can start testing these principles. Our plans give the NHS and patients a clear direction for the next five years and beyond. We believe that both purpose and pace are vital to improve services for patients."
Five animal rights activists who intimidated companies linked to Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) in an attempt to close down the animal testing lab have been sentenced to between six years and 15 months in prison.
Sarah Whitehead, 53, Nicole Vosper, 22, Thomas Harris, 27, Jason Mullan, 32, and Nicola Tapping, 29, were all members of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (Shac).
The youngest member of the conspiracy Alfie Fitzpatrick, 21, received a 12-month prison sentence suspended for two years and was ordered to complete 100 hours of community work.
Winchester Crown Court heard, during the sentencing hearing, that the six waged a wide-ranging international conspiracy of intimidation against a host of supply companies to force the closure of Cambridge-based HLS, using Shac as a front. Action carried out included realistic hoax bombs posted to the homes of staff and offices, criminal damage, threats of violence and abusive telephone calls.
Some company directors had leaflets distributed near their home falsely telling neighbours they were convicted paedophiles and others had used tampons sent through the post saying the blood was HIV positive. Others had words like puppy killer, murderer and scum daubed on their houses, cars or on the roads nearby.
The abuse would only stop when the company issued a capitulation statement on the Shac website and cut links with the lab. The total cost of damage and increased security costs was £12.6 million, to around 40 companies targeted, the court heard.
The six were part of a larger conspiracy involving the founder members of Shac, Gregg and Natasha Avery and Heather Nicholson, who used the organisation as a front to intimidate companies under badges such as the Animal Liberation Front or the Animal Rights Militia.
Whitehead, of Thorncroft Road, Littlehampton, West Sussex, Vosper, of Bay View Terrace, Newquay, Cornwall, and Harris, of Somerville Road, Ringwood, Hampshire, admitted conspiracy to blackmail companies and suppliers linked to the Cambridge-based company between 2001 and 2008.
Mullan, of Holloway Road, London, Tapping, of Somerville Road, Ringwood and Fitzpatrick, of Knowle Road, Solihull, West Midlands, all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to harm Huntingdon Life Sciences from 2005 to 2008 under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 by interfering with companies supplying them.
Other members of Shac, including the founder members Gregg Avery, Natasha Avery and Nicholson, were jailed in January 2009 at Winchester Crown Court for blackmailing companies linked to HLS.
Britain has failed to make the world's top 10 successful countries because of poor education and health services, according to an international survey of wealth and happiness.
The Prosperity Index by the Legatum Institute, a think tank based in London, crowns Norway in first place, with Britain lagging behind in 13th.
The group said the survey of economy and well-being among 110 counties revealed mediocre scores in health and education were holding the UK back. Key areas of the UK economy are sound, with low inflation and high levels of capital per worker, according to the think tank.
But it said a loss of public confidence in financial institutions since the banking crisis and deep gloom over job prospects is undermining the country's performance.
Dr Ashley Lenihan, senior fellow at the Legatum Institute, said: "Despite the recession, the UK continues to perform well on a number of important economic indicators as well as on indicators measuring entrepreneurship and opportunity and social capital, but beyond the positive headlines there are signs of weakness in some areas for the UK.
"Measurements of healthcare, domestic security and quality of education are the areas in which the UK ranks lowest, falling outside of the global top 20 on the latter two.
"The index clearly shows that the UK's path to future prosperity rests in its ability to be a global leader in fostering a culture of entrepreneurship and in how well it tackles these barriers to continued growth."
The Prosperity Index will be launched on Monday by Lord Mandelson, the former EU trade commissioner and former Business Secretary, in London.
Of the 110 countries covered by the survey, Britain ranks 101st on public confidence in financial institutions, 98th on optimism about job prospects and 93rd on expectations of future economic performance - the kind of ratings usually found in the world's poorest countries, the Legatum Institute said.
Two 15-year-old boys have been arrested on suspicion of murdering a girl of the same age.
The body of Rebecca Aylward was found in a wooded area just outside Aberkenfig, Bridgend, South Wales, at about 9am on Sunday.
Rebecca, of Maesteg, was last seen at about 12.30pm on Saturday in Sarn Hill, Sarn, when she was dropped off by relatives to visit a friend. She was reported missing by her mother that evening when she failed to return home.
South Wales Police said two local boys were arrested and were being held in custody.
Her family have been informed and were being supported and updated about the investigation by family liaison officers.
Detectives appealed for anyone who may have seen Rebecca on Saturday to come forward. An incident room has been set up at Bridgend Police Station.
Detective Superintendent Paul Burke said: "Our thoughts are with Rebecca's family, who are naturally devastated. A murder investigation is under way and I would appeal for anyone with information to please contact the incident room."
Anyone with information was asked to contact Bridgend Police Station on 01656 679585 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
Police were at the scene near a bus stop on the outskirts of the village where a section of trees was taped off and lit with lamps. Equipment, including strimmers, was unloaded from a vehicle from South Wales Police specialist search unit parked at the roadside.
South Wales Police would not comment on how the girl died. A spokeswoman said a post-mortem examination has yet to take place.
The controversial leaking of thousands of classified files on Iraq will put lives at risk, the former commander of British troops there has said.
General Tim Cross said any evidence that UK or coalition troops had engaged in torture should be investigated.
But he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "In war - war is awful and awful things happen. People get it wrong."
He added: "Releasing this information does put people at risk. Yes, that is true."
Gen Cross contrasted the actions of soldiers on the ground facing a continuous threat with the calculated decisions of politicians.
He said: "Like every flawed human being, we get it wrong occasionally but I do think that is different from those in warm places making a conscious decision from which certain things flow."
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg voiced his concerns at the claims, telling BBC1's The Andrew Marr Show: "We can bemoan how these leaks occurred, but I think the nature of the allegations made are extraordinarily serious. They are distressing to read about and they are very serious."
Asked if there should be an inquiry into the role of British troops, he said: "I think anything that suggests that basic rules of war, conflict and engagement have been broken or that torture has been in any way condoned are extremely serious and need to be looked at."
According to WikiLeaks, the logs included details of 15,000 previously unrecorded civilian deaths in Iraq and showed that US troops routinely overlooked the torture and abuse of detainees by Iraqi forces.
The Guardian, which has examined the files in detail, said it found only two cases alleging the involvement of British troops in the abuse of detainees.
Paul the octopus, who won unlikely worldwide fame correctly predicting a host of World Cup matches, has died.
Stefan Porwoll, manager of the Oberhausen Sea Life Centre in Germany, said: "His success made him almost a bigger story than the World Cup itself."
Paul predicted the winners of all Germany's World Cup clashes, and then of the final by selecting one of two boxes, each loaded with a mussel food treat and marked on the outside with one of the teams.
Staff at the centre said his death was not entirely unexpected a common octopuses generally only live for a couple of years.
"He appears to have passed away peacefully during the night, of natural causes, and we are consoled by the knowledge that he enjoyed a good life here," said Mr Porwoll.
"We may decide to give Paul his own small burial plot within our grounds and erect a modest permanent shrine."
Paul will live on, meanwhile, in the form of a range of commercial enterprises ranging from special clothing lines to mobile phone applications.
He will also feature in a documentary to be released early next year.
British forces in southern Afghanistan were under-resourced until the US troop surge earlier this year, the spokesman for the head of the Armed Forces has claimed.
Major General Gordon Messenger said there was "insufficient" manpower in Helmand 18 months ago and that his own brigade had been "stretched" and unable to venture into certain areas.
US President Barack Obama's deployment of an extra 30,000 troops came from "the realisation that the scale of the challenge was not matched by the resources allocated to it", he told the Commons Defence Select Committee.
MPs on the committee questioned why it had taken so long into the nine-year conflict for the Nato coalition to work out that more troops were needed. Ministers have repeatedly insisted that all requests from military commanders in Afghanistan have been met.
Gen Messenger, strategic communications officer to the Chief of the Defence Staff, said only now had adequate resources been in place for long enough to be making a positive impact.
"In places like Helmand, which is as bad as it gets in terms of security across Afghanistan, we've started seeing far more positive indicators," he said.
"I commanded a brigade, alongside an Afghan brigade commander, that were stretched and were not able to go to certain key areas where we knew we would ultimately have to go in order to secure the population.
"What has happened since has been an enormous inflow, of principally Americans but also other Nato nations, and a huge upsurge in the number of Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police that are in the line providing security.
"The picture now is a situation where the key areas of population in Helmand are now secured.
Committee chairman James Arbuthnot, a Conservative MP, told Gen Messenger: "You are an immensely reassuring man... but it would be more reassuring if you told us 18 months ago that we were getting things wrong, but I can't remember your doing so."
A catalogue of failings by the agencies involved in Baby P's care has been laid bare with the publication of previously secret official reports.
The toddler's mother, Tracey Connelly, named her sadistic boyfriend as her next-of-kin on an official form but the authorities still failed to discover he was living with her, the documents revealed.
Meanwhile, child protection staff continued to believe Connelly's innocent explanations for the suspicious injuries that her son kept suffering.
The two detailed serious case reviews into the 2007 death of Baby P, now named as Peter Connelly, have been published in full for the first time.
The release of the widely different reports brought fresh scrutiny to sacked children's services director Sharon Shoesmith's handling of the mistakes of social workers under her management.
Ms Shoesmith, who was fired by Haringey Council in north London over failings exposed by Peter's death, chaired the first serious case review. Her report, completed in November 2008, was muted in its criticism of social workers.
But in December 2008 Ofsted inspectors ruled the first serious case review was inadequate and former children's secretary Ed Balls commissioned a fresh investigation into the toddler's death. The second report, chaired by independent child protection expert Graham Badman, was scathing about the decisions made by social workers, doctors, police and lawyers in December 2006.
The report condemned the "incompetent" practice of the majority of those involved in Peter's care and their "completely inadequate" approach to meeting the challenges of his case. It blasted the attitude of child protection professionals, who regarded Peter as a "routine case" who suffered injuries "as a matter of course".
Children's Minister Tim Loughton said there was a "certain complacency" to the first serious case review presided over by Ms Shoesmith. He added: "I think it was insufficiently thorough and insufficiently critical at trying to find out the underlying problems and the way that certain agencies did not interact with each other."
Ministers have also pledged to release the full serious case reviews for Shannon Matthews, whose own mother was involved in her kidnapping in February 2008, and the two young brothers who sadistically tortured two other boys in Edlington, South Yorkshire, in April 2009.
A social worker has accepted compensation from three newspapers over untrue allegations about her role in the Baby P tragedy.
In three separate libel actions, Sylvia Henry, who is employed by the London Borough of Haringey as a social worker team manager, also received public apologies at the High Court.
Her solicitor James Heath told a judge in London that articles published in the Evening Standard and the Daily Mirror alleged she had been negligent in her dealings with Peter Connelly, which had contributed to his death.
An article in The Independent alleged, he said, that Ms Henry "was one of the social workers who had culpably failed to protect Peter from his guardians and thereby bore a share of the responsibility for his suffering and eventual harrowing death".
Mr Heath told Mr Justice Eady that the allegations were untrue and that Ms Henry "was not implicated in any way in the errors which led to Peter's death".
The publishers of the three newspapers had agreed to compensate her for the harm caused by the articles, he said. No figure was disclosed in court.
Mr Heath told the judge Peter Connolly was admitted to hospital in December 2006 with suspicious injuries and his case was referred to Haringey social services "where it was dealt with by, amongst others, Ms Henry".
He added: "She wanted Peter placed in professional care. In order to facilitate this she found a foster place for him. She made it clear that she did not agree with an alternative proposal that he be placed with a family friend. Regrettably, Ms Henry's view did not prevail."
In January 2007, Peter's position was reviewed: "Ms Henry remained concerned that he might be at risk if returned to the care of his mother, Tracey Connolly. She did not want this to happen until further assessments had been made. She therefore did her best to obtain the necessary authorisation for an application for a care order to be made which, if granted, would have prevented Peter from being returned to Tracey Connolly."
Mr Heath added: "However, despite her efforts, she was unable to obtain the necessary authorisation and a decision was made to return Peter to his family." From this time Ms Henry had no further involvement in the case.
Personal injury lawyers in England and Wales may get a cut of a claimant's damages in a bid to reduce costs, the Justice Secretary has said.
Kenneth Clarke said a move towards US-style payments to lawyers, where some of the costs are recovered out of the damages awarded, could also help avoid the situation where a defendant is tempted to settle and end the case before legal costs start mounting.
Lawyers currently paid on a no-win, no-fee basis, can double their fees in cases they win, which has led to a significant increase in costs.
Mr Clarke told BBC Radio 4's Law in Action programme: "You should not have a situation where, regardless of however frivolous the claim is, the sensible thing for the defendant to do is to settle, get out, before the legal costs start running up.
"A very experienced judge, Sir Rupert Jackson, has come up with some very good recommendations which I find, and the Government finds, very attractive.
"But they will involve perhaps moving toward the US system whereby some of the costs are recovered out of the damages which are awarded."
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: "We will be consulting shortly on how 'no win no fee' conditional fee agreements should be improved."
Major new multimillion-pound road schemes have been announced by Transport Secretary Philip Hammond.
He gave details of eight motorway schemes including one to allow motorists to drive on the hard shoulder of two sections of the M25 at peak times.
Mr Hammond also announced plans for seven local schemes worth £300 million including a bypass to the north of Lancaster and a new road in Taunton in Somerset.
Including improvements to the A556 from Knutsford to Bowdon in Cheshire, there are 16 new schemes to add to eight projects announced by Chancellor George Osborne last week.
Mr Hammond also said there would be a pot of more than £600 million of funding for further local authority projects. He said: "While we have had to make some tough choices, I am pleased that spending on transport was treated as a priority for the Government in the spending review.
"This Government sees transport as a key driver of growth nationally and in the regions. So I am delighted to be able to give the green light to 24 new transport projects and a fund worth over £600 million for many more schemes to bid for."
He went on: "Taken together, this investment will not only bring benefits in terms of reduced congestion, shorter journey times and more efficient public transport, but also provide a vital economic boost.
"For every pound we spend on Highways Agency schemes, on average we will get back £6 of benefits and in many cases there are even higher returns for local authority schemes," he said. "Transport is vital to securing the UK's long term prosperity. That is why these schemes are so important and why I will continue to argue for investment which delivers long term benefits for both the travelling public and the economy as a whole."
Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation, said: "We welcome Philip Hammond's admission that major road schemes give excellent value for money so why is it that while capital spending on transport over the next four years is broadly flat in cash terms, the Highways Agency's share is being slashed by 34%?
"Once again ministers have failed to have regard for the way most people travel - on the roads," he said. "Certainly the billions being earmarked for high-speed rail will do little to ease the congestion misery for drivers."
A station manager was stopped from sending London Underground staff down to the Tube track after a bomb ripped apart a train on July 7, he has said.
Darren Glazer, duty station manager at Liverpool Street station, described the confusion that reigned after suicide bomber Shehzad Tanweer detonated his bomb on an eastbound Circle Line train, killing seven people.
While a British Transport Police (BTP) officer forbade staff at Liverpool Street from going to investigate, Tube staff at Aldgate station ignored safety concerns and rushed to help the bloodied victims, the inquest into the deaths of the 52 people killed in the 2005 atrocities heard.
Mr Glazer said: "There was some smoke coming out from the direction of Aldgate through the tunnel into our platforms. We planned to (find out what had happened) but then I was stopped by DCI (Al) Lawson at the time who was silver control for British Transport Police.
"I couldn't allow my staff to do what I wanted them to do because I was stopped by DCI Lawson because of the possibility of secondary devices."
No-one was sent down to the track for at least the first 25 minutes, the inquest heard.
Meanwhile staff at Aldgate station were praised by the coroner for their bravery for getting stuck in and helping out in the tunnel.
Station supervisor Olanayi Falayi ignored the concerns of BTP officers about the danger in the tunnel at Aldgate.
He described how he went down there anyway as he had seen the walking wounded emerging, and found a woman pinned to the floor of a Tube carriage by an upright pole.
He told the inquest: "Police officers were saying we didn't know the situation down there, that it would be dangerous to go. But (my colleague) and I decided to go anyway."
Hammer killer Michael Stone has been refused a new appeal over his conviction for the murders of Lin and Megan Russell, the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) has said.
Stone is serving three life sentences and has been told he must serve at least 25 years in jail over the 1996 attacks in Chillenden, Kent.
The CCRC said: "After a detailed and painstaking investigation we have identified nothing which justifies referring the case for a new appeal."
Stone was originally found guilty in 1998 of killing Dr Russell, 45, and her daughter Megan, six, and the attempted murder of Megan's sister, Josie, in Chillenden, near Canterbury, Kent.
Those convictions were quashed in February 2001 by three appeal judges and a retrial was ordered.
In October 2001, Stone was again convicted after a trial at Nottingham Crown Court, and his three life sentences were re-imposed.
He has always protested his innocence but the trial judge Mr Justice Royce described his crimes as "truly appalling offences" and stressed that there were some cases where it was unlikely that an offender would ever be released.
Rejecting his bid for a new appeal, a spokesman for the CCRC said: "In Mr Stone's case we have not found any new evidence or new argument that we consider capable of raising a real possibility that the conviction would be quashed."
He said its investigation "included a substantial amount of fresh forensic testing on material from the crime scene" and "carefully considered all the submissions" made by Mr Stone and his team before reaching the final decision not to refer in this case".
Chancellor George Osborne's recovery plans have received a welcome boost with better than expected third quarter growth figures and a crucial upgrade for the UK economy.
Gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 0.8% between July and September - less than the 1.2% surge in the previous three months, but double the growth predicted by most economists.
The data eases fears of a double dip recession and will reinforce Government hopes that the private sector will pick up the slack created in the economy by mammoth public spending cuts.
Ratings agency Standard & Poor's added to the cheer by revising its outlook on the UK to stable from negative and confirming the UK's AAA rating.
Mr Osborne welcomed what he called a "double dose of good news" for the economy. He said: "What you see today, in an uncertain global economic environment, is Britain growing, growing strongly, the strongest growth we have seen in this part of the year for a decade, and also our country's credit rating being secured."
The pound surged after the third-quarter figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), rising against the dollar and pulling back from recent six-month lows against the euro.
Sterling's bounce back comes as experts believe the surprisingly robust figures mean any further money-boosting efforts from the Bank of England will continue to remain on hold.
But they remain sceptical the UK can maintain its growth momentum as the austerity cuts kick in, while the figures are only a preliminary estimate and may be subject to change.
Economic growth over the past six months has now hit 2%, which is the fastest pace of expansion seen over two consecutive quarters for 10 years, according to the ONS.
It said that allowing for a bounce back in the second quarter following the bad weather at the start of the year, the underlying growth between July and September was actually similar to that of the second quarter.
