5 Live Investigates

By BBC Radio 5 LiveBusiness

5 Live Investigates episodes

February 25, 2018 Acid Attacks
5 live Investigates is in the London borough of Newham - dubbed the acid attack capital of Britain. Shopkeepers there have signed up to a voluntary code of practise banning the sale of corrosive substances to under 21's - but are they as good as their word? The programme follows a 14-year-old as she attempts to buy corrosive liquids from stores in the area. Newham mayor Sir Robin Wales and local Labour MP Stephen Timms have called on the government to crackdown on sales. The programme also has new FOI figures which reveal a three-fold rise in attacks across England and Wales between 2013 and the end of 2017. Acid attack survivors Adele Bellis and Jabed Hussain also reveal the long term physical and emotional effects.
46 min
February 18, 2018 Affordable Homes
The shortfall of new affordable homes in England will soon be equivalent to a city the size of Leeds according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. They tell 5 live Investigates that supply has fallen short of demand by 30,000 every year since 2011 and the cumulative shortfall could reach 335,000 by the end of this parliament. The government says it's investing £9bn in the sector. Married parents of three Dawn and Adrian, from Milton Keynes, tell 5 live Investigates their family's health has suffered since being forced into temporary accommodation while they wait for suitable social housing to become available.
"Both of us have had issues with mental health and ability to cope," said Dawn, who asked that their surnames not be published.
"It's all come to a head, the culmination of that means Adrian's pretty much had a breakdown for the last couple of months and been signed off work," she said.
Adrian, who like Dawn works full-time, said not being able to afford a home meant that "being a proud man, at the end of the day, I took a lot of stick to myself. I beat myself up inside.
"Because when you've got a wife and three children, I felt a failure," he said.
54 min
February 11, 2018 Skin Cream Fire Deaths
Skin creams containing paraffin could be responsible for 'hundreds' of fire deaths across the UK according to fire chiefs. 5 live Investigates revealed last year that 37 deaths had been linked to the creams since 2010. But the programme has learned there have been a further eight deaths - and leading firefighters warn that figure could be much higher because fire and rescue services don't always record the fact that skin creams were involved. Following 5 live's investigation, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency urged all manufactures to place warnings on their products, advising consumers to wash clothes and bedding properly to reduce the build-up of paraffin. But of the 38 products containing paraffin and licensed for sale in the UK, just seven of them carry warnings. Brian Bicat, 82, died six months after the MHRA issued its guidance after accidentally setting himself on fire. His family say they weren't aware of the dangers of using skin creams and consumers need to be given advice to prevent more deaths in the future.
53 min
February 04, 2018 Online estate agents
An investigation into online-only estate agents and whether their cut price, up-front fees really do offer value for money. The online-only property business has gone from strength to strength since it emerged just a few years ago and it's now threatening the very survival of traditional agents on the high street. But are sales exaggerated and is advertising misleading? 5 Live Investigates hears from the companies and their customers about how this expanding sector of the market is performing.
Before these companies arrived on the scene, estate agents typically charged a commission of 1-2% on a house price once the sale goes through. Online-only agents have changed all that. They list your house on property portals like Rightmove or Zoopla and charge you a fixed fee which customers usually pay upfront. For most properties that fee is a lot lower than what you would pay a traditional agent - but the big difference is with the online-only agents you pay whether you sell or not, so it's a gamble.
The programme examines new research from investment bank Jefferies which suggests that statistically around half of customers who use the online-only agents could be wasting their money.
And it hears from the leading online-only estate agency Purplebricks which disputes the research saying that 78% of customers successfully sell their home with the company.
51 min
January 21, 2018 Sexual Harassment
Maria Miller MP says we should consider using hate crime laws to tackle sexual harassment. She has launched an inquiry into 'routine' sexual harassment of women on buses, trains, in the street and in bars and clubs. Victims of sexual harassment share their experiences with 5 live Investigates. The programme also hears from the Equalities and Human Rights Commission whose survey into sexual harassment reveals only half of sexual harassment victims actually report it to their employers. Even when they do - in the vast majority of cases - nothing happens. Unite the Union is in the middle of its own survey which reveals 97 per cent of those who have responded experienced sexual harassment first hand. 83 per cent have received unwelcome and inappropriate touching, hugging or kissing and 47 per cent have received requests for sexual favours.
46 min
January 14, 2018 Safety Concerns in Rented Housing
A million rented properties in England have hazards that put tenants' health and safety at risk. The government says it's backing a change in the law - giving greater powers to take bad landlords to court. 5 live Investigates has been told one in ten people who rent their homes have reported health and safety concerns in the last 12 months. According to a survey by YouGov for the housing charity Shelter, one in ten have also suffered health problems as a direct result of the environment they live in.
47 min
January 07, 2018 Stalking
Stalking is a devastating crime suffered by more than a million people a year. New figures obtained by 5Live Investigates reveal that men are the hidden victims. Are the police letting them down?
The latest figures estimate that nearly half a million men have been stalked but only a tiny fraction of those incidents were recorded by the police. A Freedom of Information request by 5Live Investigates reveals that just 1800 crimes of stalking in which the victims were men were recorded over the last four years, since the obligation came in for police to log it as a crime. The Suzy Lamplugh Trust has described the figure as likely to be "a drip in the ocean".
Very often victims don't report the offence when it happens to them. But even when they do, men who spoke to the programme said the authorities don't take them seriously.
Their concerns are echoed by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary which said in a report last year that victims were left at risk by poorly run investigations and that stalking often went unrecorded.
The Home Office said those suffering stalking should be supported regardless of gender and that the new civil stalking protection orders due to be introduced would protect them at an early stage.
If you are affected by these issues you can find details of organisations providing help and support here: bbc.co.uk/actionline.
46 min
December 17, 2017 Betting Shops
The betting industry watchdog the Gambling Commission has launched an inquiry into a self-exclusion scheme designed to help problem gamblers. It follows an undercover investigation by 5 live Investigates. The programme's reporter signed up to the Multi-Operator Self-Exclusion Scheme (MOSES) and got himself barred from 21 betting shops in Grimsby, Lincolnshire. He submitted his details and a photograph of himself to the scheme which were then distributed to the 21 shops he asked to be excluded from. Ten days later, he then visited them all and attempted to play on fixed odds betting terminals which he did without being challenged in 19 of them. In two of the shops he was recognised and asked to leave. The Association of Bookmakers said: "We accept that the current self-exclusion scheme is not without flaws. However we are continually developing improved systems." The Senet Group, which runs the MOSES scheme on behalf of the gambling industry, said the programme's findings were 'a wake-up call.'.
51 min
December 10, 2017 Children and Energy Drinks
Adrian Goldberg hears calls from teachers to ban high-caffeine energy drinks from schools - with one teaching union describing them as 'readily available legal highs'. Despite the cans carrying warnings that they are not suitable for children, figures suggest more than two thirds of 10 to 18-year-olds are drinking them once a week or more, at levels considered unsafe by the government. We speak to researchers who say under-16s are being influenced by the huge marketing budgets behind the major brands and talk to school children about why they drink them.
47 min
December 03, 2017 Police Stress
Are front line police officers paying the price of job cuts through rising stress and mental illness? Long term sick leave for mental health issues has shot up by 72% since 2010, at the same time as officer numbers have fallen by 16%, according to Freedom of Information figures obtained by 5Live Investigates.
Officers tell the programme pressures are rising because there aren't enough officers now to share the strain. And when they become unwell it can be hard to seek help because of the stigma behind talking about mental health issues. Some say there isn't enough in-house support when things get tough, but that forces are struggling too because the money isn't there to do more.
Across England and Wales police officer numbers are lower than they have been for 20 years according to Home Office data.
One sergeant tells the programme 'Officers are having to go to a lot more incidents, a hell of a lot more in such a short space of time without being able to step away and process it in their mind before they go on to something else. It has had an impact and it will continue to have an impact until officer numbers are increased'.
The government says it recognises the job can place stressful demands on people and has announced a £7,500,000 pilot service to better support forces.
50 min