The Report

As police from Operation Tuleta warn former Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain that his computer may have been hacked, Jane Dodge investigates the use of the practice by the press. Tom Watson MP tells 'The Report' that computer hacking could potentially 'dwarf' the phone hacking scandal.

The Leveson Enquiry into media ethics has been hearing from celebrities and victims of crime whose phones have been hacked. But other witnesses including former military intelligence officer Ian Hurst have given details of how their computers were hacked. One of his correspondents tells us how the detail revealed could have put lives at risk.

The Report talks exclusively to Joe Poulton - not his real name - who as an undercover operative spent time amid the culture of lawbreaking in the offices of private detective firm, Southern Investigations in London. The former police officer was there for nearly a decade until 2006 gathering intelligence on an unrelated matter. He reveals that computer hacking along with other unlawful techniques, was used in connection with stories for News International and other newspapers.

The Report has spoken to another victim, also involved in Northern Ireland, who believes he was hacked to supply information to the press.

The nature and character of the targets of computer hacking raise questions about personal safety and national security. Tom Watson MP a high profile critic of the press tells The Report that the computer hacking scandal could "potentially dwarf the phone hacking scandal'.

Producer: Paul Grant.

It seems barely a day goes by without further damaging revelations about the UK Border Agency, the organisation which oversees Britain's immigration and customs operation. The recent disclosure that security checks were lowered at UK ports, allegedly without ministerial consent, cost Brodie Clark, former head of the Border Agency, his job. But behind the headlines, what is really going on in immigration halls up and down the land? In this week's The Report, Simon Cox investigates the under fire UK Border Agency. Can the public have confidence that it is now being run and managed properly? Are British ports now safe and secure?

The TUC's Day of Action has been supported by an estimated two million public sector workers, on strike for a 'fair deal' on pensions'. Lucy Ash has been behind the scenes in Birmingham - where the TUC national rally is taking place - and with union members planning the strike, some taking action for the first time. Tension mounts between the TUC and local authority about the planned march, and negotiations falter over the route - there have been several strikes in the city already this year. Elsewhere in the West Midlands, small businesses are angry that their market is being closed by the council - action they see as unnecessary. The Report reflects some of the antipathy between public and private sector workers in one British city.

Producer: Ian Muir-Cochrane.

Are the protections designed to grant people being deprived of their liberty the right to challenge their detention in the courts really working? In this edition of The Report, Matthew Hill investigates the mechanism known as Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards.

Rather than protecting vulnerable adults, there's increasing concern that people who are deemed unable to make their own decisions can be kept in care homes and hospitals against their will without transparency and, in some cases, without proper safeguards.

Just two years after the safeguards were introduced, The Report has been granted exclusive access to a new study highlighting the many flaws in the system. Matthew Hill asks whether the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) are adequate; if the DoLS understood by care workers, and why are they so unevenly applied across the country?

The programme hears from the head of the judges at the Court of Protection, Mr Justice Charles and the Official Solicitor, Alastair Pitblado.

Producer: Hannah Barnes.

In the first of a new series of The Report, Simon Cox investigates the events of late October when an Occupy London protest led to the closure of St Paul's Cathedral.

Much of the coverage has been dominated by the row over the decision by St Pauls to close the cathedral and the protester's relationship with the Church. But The Report reveals a third key player in the story: The City of London Corporation.

The BBC has learned how the City of London Corporation struck a deal with the Labour Government in return for a 250 million pound contribution to the Crossrail project. An internal document sent to councilors in 2007 and seen by the BBC says one of the pre-conditions of a major contribution to Crossrail would have to be "delivery of a net real terms improvement in Government funding of the City Corporation". The Government then agreed to re-instate a fund known as the "City Offset"" from April 2010 of around 10 million pounds a year. This had previously been scrapped by Labour in 2003.

The Corporation, which is the local authority for the city, has substantial private funds that are exempt from Freedom of Information (FOI) requests. The occupy protesters are demanding that the Corporation opens up its private funds to public scrutiny and reveals the extent of the Corporation's lobbying since 2008.

Producer: Daniel Tetlow

Shale gas, extracted through a process known as "hydraulic fracturing" has had dramatic effects on the United States' energy market - contributing to both increased supply and reduction in the cost of gas.

In Poland its discovery caused so much excitement that the first exploratory drilling was carried live on television.

Britain has shale gas reserves too and the Department of Energy and Climate Change is about to open the next round of bidding for licences to test drill in certain parts of the country.

The industry is in its infancy in Britain but in "The Report" Simon Cox analyses the areas where shale gas might occur - potentially in large tracts of northern and southern England as well as parts of Scotland and Wales.

Might the UK eventually see large multi-national companies coming to this country to invest? How accurate are the claims that are made for how much gas might be produced? And what does the prospect of cheap, plentiful gas mean for the government's commitment to renewable energy?

The rate of school exclusions, both permanent and fixed term, has fallen over the past decade as successive governments have sought to keep children in education. Samantha Washington goes behind the figures and finds that an apparent success story may be masking systemic failures. Some students are being unofficially and illegally excluded without access to education. The Department of Education has estimated that thousands of excluded students go missing from school rolls. And where alternative provision for excluded pupils is provided, it operates in "a largely uninspected and unregulated sector." (OFSTED, June 2011) The costs are high, not only for the children but for society - many of those who are excluded never get an education, never work and all too often wind up in jail.

After charges against the polices main suspect, Rebecca Leighton, were discontinued police now have an uphill struggle to find out who contaminated bags of saline at Stepping Hill hospital in Stockport. Police are currently investigating three deaths and four other cases all of whom are thought to have been given the saline contaminated with insulin.

This summer as many as 350 people may have been sent abroad and forced to marry against their will. Figures from the Forced Marriage Unit suggest 4 out of 10 of those affected are schoolchildren, so as the new academic year begins there will be empty seats in classrooms across the UK. In the last quarter, the number of protection orders issued by the courts identifying those at risk of being married against their will has doubled, year on year.

In April the Prime Minister said he was determined to stamp out forced marriage, and had no time for talk of cultural sensitivies. But three years after the Forced Marriage Unit was set up in England and Wales, and guidance was issue to all professionals working with children there's evidence that the legislation is not working as effectively as it should.

Schools are on the frontline of efforts to try and prevent forced marriage, but the Report has learned that even in areas where there's are communities of South Asian origin, some schools are unaware there's a problem, don't raise the issue with pupils, or even flout the guidelines by immediately contacting parents.

Angus Crawford asks whether the government is doing enough to help vulnerable young people.

What will be the fate of the Government's Work Programme?

Billed as "the most ambitious programme of back to work support this country has ever seen", just three months since its launch in June serious questions have been raised about the scheme's viability.

Experts suggest the Work Programme will run out of money and those with responsibility for delivering it will go bust unless contracts are renegotiated.

The Report explores the history of welfare to work schemes and the track records of some of the biggest companies involved this time round. Simon Cox meets with people who are long-term unemployed and on the Work Programme and who have little faith that this scheme will be different to its predecessors.

He also speaks with former employees of some of the largest providers and asks whether the Department of Work and Pensions has both overestimated the success of these providers, and underestimated the difficulty of getting the long-term unemployed back in work.

Producer: Hannah Barnes.