File on 4 Investigates

Latest Episodes:

Deadly Delays: The Ambulance Crisis Jan 25, 2022

Show notes

Record ambulance delays are leaving patients waiting hours for emergency care to arrive with waiting times increasing every month. Some patients wait hours at home, many wait outside the hospitals for a bed to become available, but for a small number, ambulances are arriving too late and patients are dying while waiting for help to arrive. In this episode of File on 4 we hear how the crisis is impacting both patients and ambulance staff.

In a series of six devastating 999 calls over one hour we hear how ambulance delays in Manchester changed the lives of one family forever, while paramedics and 999 call handlers chart the huge strain on the ambulance service through Christmas and New Year via personal audio diaries which reveal their innermost thoughts, concerns and experiences as they battle through the crisis.

Reporter: Jane Deith Producer: Annabel Deas Researcher: Scott Hesketh Editor: Carl Johnston

Mental health rehab - the forgotten patients Jan 18, 2022

Show notes

The NHS is sending patients with the most complex mental health needs to spend months or even years in specialist rehabilitation units, with the promise of helping them to recover. Adam Eley speaks to some patients who say they were sent to units sometimes hours from home, where poor care meant their condition got worse. Some experts say there is not enough oversight of the care provided.

Credits: Reporter: Adam Eley Producer: Emma Forde Editor: Nicola Addyman

Hunting the Darknet Dealers Jan 11, 2022

Show notes

The high stakes cat and mouse game between police and darknet drug dealers Police say they are finally turning the tide on drug dealers selling on the darknet – a secretive part of the internet which has been described as like “online shopping for drugs.” The UK’s National Crime Agency says recent international takedowns of so called dark markets and arrests in multiple countries are a result of new techniques in cyber policing that is giving them the upper hand. However, BBC research suggests that police around the world have an uphill struggle on their hands as many dealers - known as vendors - have survived multiple market place collapses by operating across many different darknet sites. The BBC’s cyber reporter Joe Tidy and BBC data journalist Alison Benjamin journey into this hidden world to speak to vendors and buyers and uncover secrets of the trade The programme reveals the major role played by UK dealers in the global business which is estimated to be worth more than a billion dollars a year. Reporter: Joe Tidy Producer: Paul Grant Editor: Maggie Latham

Am I in a Cult? Nov 23, 2021

Show notes

How do you know if you’ve been recruited by a cult? Rachel Stonehouse investigates claims there are up to 2,000 cults currently operating in the UK. We talk to young people who say they were recruited on campus and a father who went to court to free his daughter from the influence of a harmful cult.

Reporter: Rachel Stonehouse Producer: Michael Cowan Editor: Maggie Latham Researcher: Natasha Fernandes

Who is policing the police? Nov 16, 2021

Show notes

With the murder of Sarah Everard shining a light on police vetting procedures, File on 4 reveals that thousands of officers have still not been re-vetted to standards brought in in 2006. As a public inquiry tries to establish what’s going wrong with our policing, Melanie Abbott talks to the women who say they’ve been betrayed by police officers who should have kept them safe and to officers who say sexism and harassment are part of the job.

Reporter: Melanie Abbott Producer: Mick Tucker Editor: Nicola Addyman

Furlough Fraud Nov 09, 2021

Show notes

An estimated £66 billion was spent by the government during the pandemic on paying towards the wages of people who couldn’t work, or whose employers could no longer afford to pay them. That’s around one fifth of the money the government spent on the response to Covid. It says 11.6 million jobs were supported by the furlough scheme. But the scheme also exposed the government to fraud and is expected to result in billions of pounds of additional losses to the tax payer. In September of last year, only after 6 months of the scheme running, HMRC was already estimating up to £3.5 billion of fraud and error in furlough payments. Now the scheme has closed, Paul Kenyon investigates businesses that claimed furlough money even thought their employees carried on working.

Reporter: Paul Kenyon Producer: Anna Meisel Editor: Carl Johnston

Controlled, Abused and Criminalised Nov 02, 2021

Show notes

Livvy Haydock investigates whether women are being unfairly treated by the criminal justice system when coercive and controlling behaviour by a partner is behind their offences. Six years ago, the UK led the world in making coercive and controlling behaviour a crime. In a 2019 landmark judgement, Sally Challen’s murder conviction was quashed when the Court of Appeal ruled that years of abuse had contributed to her murdering her husband. But has the criminal justice system really evolved enough to recognise the complex relationship between prolonged abuse and violent crime by women?

Reporter: Livvy Haydock Producer: Jim Booth Editor: Nicola Addyman

For Richer, For Poorer Oct 26, 2021

Show notes

With an ageing population, it’s estimated that over one million people in the UK will be living with dementia by 2025. But what happens when someone with the condition is deliberately targeted and led into marriage for the financial gain of the partner? Unlike in Scotland, marriage in England and Wales revokes any previous will that may have been made. For those who target someone with dementia and secretly wed them without the knowledge of their family, matrimony can prove to be extremely lucrative. We hear from the families of those believed to have been preyed upon and registrars on the frontline, tasked with spotting a predatory marriage, despite no medical training in assessing dementia. And we speak to campaigners who say the law needs to change to better protect victims and their families.

Reporter: Datshiane Navanayagam Producer: Paul Grant Editor: Gail Champion

Pandora Papers: From Bribery to the British High Street Oct 05, 2021

Show notes

Amongst the millions of documents released in the ‘Pandora Papers’ leak of offshore financial information are a number of documents that one family business would rather have remained hidden.

Together with The Guardian newspaper, File on 4 follows the trail of millions of pounds tainted by bribery and corruption. Piecing together key documents from the leak reveals how earnings from Unaoil – a company involved in the ‘world’s biggest bribery scandal’ - were invested into UK property on high streets as far apart as London and Aberdeen, Reading and the North East.

Why does the UK remain a go-to destination for some of the world’s most tainted money? And why does it take a leak for the truth to be revealed about who’s really invested in some of the country’s prime property?

The Pandora Papers is an investigation led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. The documents have been shared with the Guardian, the BBC and other media partners around the world.

Further reporting on other stories arising from the Pandora Papers leak are available online: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-58780561

Reporter: Felicity Hannah Producer: Anna Meisel Additional Production: Kate West Editor: Gail Champion

Occupational Hazard: The bus drivers who died from Covid Sep 28, 2021

Show notes

During the pandemic, it’s been one of the most dangerous occupations in the land, with a death rate similar to that of frontline nurses. Sixty London bus drivers have died of Covid-19, and yet the authorities still have little explanation as to why the disease spread among them in such deadly fashion. Families of the deceased say it was due to poor safety standards and the slow introduction of protective measures. Transport for London say they were just following government guidance. But with bus drivers becoming more vociferous and the death rate too high to ignore, BBC File on 4 tries to uncover the truth behind the shocking statistics. The programme hears from bus drivers across the capital who describe what was really happening on the ground, as well as the families of the deceased, and a TfL insider who alleges systemic problems with health and safety and says a Royal Commission is now needed to get to the bottom of what happened.

Reporter: Paul Kenyon Producer: Annabel Deas Editor: Carl Johnston

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected