Dispatches - Season 33 / Year 2018

Dispatches goes undercover to investigate how former cabinet ministers might be looking to make money from Brexit. Antony Barnett discovers how, with Brexit causing ever more confusion and uncertainty, this presents an opportunity for those with the right knowledge to cash in on their experience.

It's Britain's biggest and fastest growing hotel chain, but when a Dispatches reporter goes undercover as an agency housekeeper at a central London Premier Inn to make those comfy beds and clean the rooms, she finds some less-than-comfortable truths about what it can be like for some of the people working there.

Former youth football coach Barry Bennell, whose trial ended today, was found guilty of a total of 43 offences relating to 11 victims, following years of abuse against young boys he coached. In an Al Jazeera investigation for Channel 4 Dispatches, Deborah Davies reveals how one of the top talent spotters in Britain with ties to major clubs like Manchester City and Crewe Alexandra spent his days coaching children, and his nights abusing them. Davies first reported on Barry Bennell's crimes 20 years ago for Dispatches. In a powerful and heart-breaking documentary, she describes how some of his victims have turned to substance abuse and even attempted suicide.

In the grip of a funding crisis and with the number of mental health beds plummeting, the NHS is placing thousands of patients in private hospitals. The American-owned Priory Group is the biggest beneficiary receiving hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers' money over the last year. Dispatches goes undercover in one of the group's hospitals to investigate the care these patients are receiving and discovers a worrying picture.

Dispatches investigates the expenses of Britain's top universities, revealing over £7 million of spending by the institutions' senior leadership teams. Amid the national debate over university vice chancellors' large pay packets, Dispatches shines a light on the opaque area of spending on luxury hotels, executive travel, fine dining around the world, and other creature comforts. Britain has some of the best universities in the world, but does what they spend always represent value for money for students, and the taxpayer? Since fees tripled in 2012, vice chancellor pay has increased by at least 7 per cent, prompting the government to bring in a new regulator to keep pay 'under control'. But will the new body be tough enough? Reporter Antony Barnett lives the life of a vice chancellor as he interrogates receipts and credit card statements obtained by Dispatches under freedom of information laws.

This exclusive documentary filmed over two years examines the problem of female genital mutilation, or FGM, which involves the partial or total removal of external female genitalia. It's estimated that some 137,000 women and girls are affected by FGM in England and Wales, and in any given year it's thought that 20,000 girls in the UK are at risk of FGM. Reporter Cathy Newman investigates.

The Financial Ombudsman is meant to investigate when customers have unresolved complaints against financial institutions. But is there a bias against customers in favour of the banks? Dispatches goes undercover to investigate allegations that staff with little or no training are judging cases, and that some are reaching decisions in favour of the banks without even properly reading case files.

Dispatches investigates how companies could artificially close their gender pay gap. Reporter Tazeen Ahmad reveals how the figures companies present to the government may not always be what they seem, as the deadline for disclosing the average difference between the pay of male and female employees fast approaches. Undercover reporters meet the 'gender pay gap consultants' who offer advice that could allow firms to exploit loopholes in the law in order to protect their own reputations, instead of tackling differences in pay. Dispatches looks at whether this flagship policy will be enforced and asks if this new law aimed at promoting pay equality and adding billions of pounds to the economy is fit for purpose.

Across Britain, the police, local authorities and other public bodies are reaching out to Muslim groups in the fight against terrorism and extremism. But how much do they know about some of the Muslim groups they are talking to? John Ware investigates.

Dispatches reveals a new vehicle emissions scandal. Going undercover, the programme investigates how British hauliers are using high-tech 'cheat' devices and computerised hacking to disable the emissions controls on their vehicles, which worsens our air quality, all to save themselves money. A former Government chief scientist has described the hauliers involved as having 'blood on their hands' as experts say the premature deaths of 23,000 people each year in the UK are linked to the types of dangerous gases produced by HGV diesel engines - gases that should be controlled by their emissions systems. Dispatches demonstrates how HGVs that have had their emissions systems modified by hauliers produce far higher levels of dangerous pollutants, by conducting the first ever scientifically controlled test to assess the impact of the 'cheat' devices on the air we all breathe.

Dispatches investigates a subsidised renewable energy industry that turns trees into fuel to keep the lights on in Britain, and in your home. But is burning wood instead of coal really an environmentally friendly answer to climate change? Reporter Antony Barnett travels to the forestlands of the south-eastern United States to find one source of this controversial 'carbon-neutral' fuel. Britain's households spend at least £500 million a year on biomass, which by 2020 will provide up to 30% of our renewable energy. But is there a wider cost to the environment? Barnett visits the biodiverse wetlands of Virginia and North Carolina where millions of tonnes of wood are harvested and processed into pellets, which are burnt in one of Britain's largest power stations.

Universal Credit is the government's big idea for the seven million people who receive benefits. But the new welfare changes have been mired in controversy, with claims that they are forcing people to use food banks and making some people homeless. Hansard reported last November that the government had announced what they called a balanced package of improvements to put more money into claimants' hands earlier. Reporter Morland Sanders speaks to people who rely on the benefit to see what difference the changes are making to their lives. And an exclusive poll of the staff employed to administer the new system reveals widespread discontent at the Department of Work and Pensions.

A Dispatches special edition from a multi-award-winning team of producer/reporter Evan Williams and director Patrick Wells. For the past five years an undercover network of Rohingya activists have been risking their lives to secretly film evidence of years of repression, violence and mass murder by the Myanmar authorities. Dispatches has been given exclusive access to hundreds of their videos and the first ever interview with the network to provide the most complete account of how ethnic tension degenerated into what some are calling state-sanctioned genocide, and ask whether Myanmar's leaders - including Nobel Prize-winning Aung San Suu Kyi - could be held accountable for the atrocities committed in Myanmar's killing fields.

Grenfell Tower was Britain's worst fire for a century. A year on from the disaster, Ed Howker investigates claims that even after the Hackitt Review of building regulations, Britain's tower blocks are still not safe. He looks at recommendations from experts that combustible cladding should be banned and sprinkler systems introduced, and examines new evidence of risks in hundreds of other blocks.

As Britain faces a major housing shortage, how is it that some of those responsible for providing the social housing that we so desperately need seem to be doing so well out of the crisis? Reporter Anthony Barnett travels the country to hear from communities under threat at a time when the pay of social housing bosses has hit record levels, while the provision of housing for social rent has hit an all-time low. Among his discoveries is that an executive of a housing association in one of the poorest parts of the country received a pay-out of more than a million pounds.

Dispatches goes undercover in the secretive world of the people who decide what can and can't be posted on the world's biggest social media site. The investigation looks at how those decisions are made and explores the impact that they have on the millions of people who use Facebook.

On the day when a far-right terrorist is convicted of preparing to murder an MP, and two others are jailed for membership of banned neo-Nazi group National Action, Dispatches tells the inside story of how the killing was planned, and how that plan was betrayed to the police. Given exclusive access to the far-right activist who blew the whistle on the plot, the programme penetrates the secretive world of Britain's new neo-Nazis.

Hundreds of thousands of people are officially homeless. Now, with unique access, reporter Datshiane Navanayagam goes behind the scenes inside two homeless hostels in London to reveal the increasing number of people who are in work and homeless, unable to afford expensive inner-city private rents. She draws on her own experience of being homeless and uncovers how a low-wage economy based on zero hour contracts is leaving some people with no alternative other than to sleep on the streets. Datshiane talks to housing charity Shelter about new statistics that lay bare the intense personal anguish and embarrassment felt by those who are working but homeless.

Britain has some of the worst breastfeeding rates in the world and new mum Kate Quilton wants to find out why. Food Unwrapped presenter Kate gave birth to her son in May and found breastfeeding a challenge. At one point she said she felt like a 'leper' when she was feeding in public. So she investigates the obstacles to breastfeeding, to find out why Britain has some of the worst rates in the world and whether more support is needed. A survey by Swansea University, exclusive to Dispatches, suggests that 67% of us think that there's no biological difference between breast milk and formula. Kate meets scientists at Imperial College who have measured the presence of hundreds of vital living components in breast milk that make it so much better for babies than formula. These include natural pain killers, aids to sleep and immune support. She also explores how cuts in public health funding have led to breastfeeding support services closing down.

Have you been burgled, robbed or assaulted but feel that the police brushed you off? You're not alone. Dispatches hears from victims of crime who claim that the police have failed to investigate their cases fully, if at all. These are stories of violent attacks, homes broken into, property vandalised and family businesses left to fend for themselves against thieves. Exclusive research featured in the programme raises concerns that Britain is now sliding into a new era of policing. One of the most comprehensive analyses to date reveals the levels of crimes that many forces are choosing not to investigate. Dispatches also examines the wider impact of the policy of 'screening out' and other practices by the police. Some victims are being left to investigate and seek justice themselves, others feel that law and order is slipping away from their community.

Knife and gun crime is on the rise but prosecutions are falling. Key witnesses are terrified of giving evidence - with good reason. Livvy Haydock explores the dark world of witness intimidation, and finds a sophisticated and highly effective system of menacing violence amplified and driven by social media. She meets the gangsters who threaten 'stitches for snitches' and families of witnesses who paid the price of telling the truth in court.

Two point four million people smoke cannabis in the UK. Some police forces don't prosecute for possession any more, and doctors can now apply for licences to prescribe the cannabis to treat patients with certain medical conditions. Canada has just legalised it, as have several American States. So is it time to look at the evidence and assess whether UK policy needs to change? Former Met Police chief Lord Hogan-Howe, who has always supported tough laws on cannabis, investigates for Dispatches. He visits Colorado - one of the first states in the US to legalise - and sees first-hand how the cannabis business is booming, how the state is using its quarter-of-a-billion-dollar tax dividend and discovers that some strains of cannabis on sale are six times stronger than skunk. Will he change his mind about legalisation?

As Prime Minister Theresa May declares that 'austerity is over', Dispatches can reveal that more than 35,000 parents are now using baby banks to provide their young children with nappies, clothes, toys and cots. Dispatches has discovered that there are now more than 100 baby banks in the UK, the vast majority of which have been set up since the austerity programme began. For the first time, Dispatches has surveyed these baby banks, to get a sense of who they're serving and the services they're providing. The results of this ground-breaking survey show that demand has increased significantly. We meet working parents who can't afford the most basic essentials and have to rely on baby banks to provide for their children.

As the Prime Minster tries to deliver a Brexit that works for the country as whole, we reveal what the British people think of the likely deal on offer. Channel 4 has commissioned the largest independent survey of attitudes across the whole of the UK conducted since the referendum. We asked 20,000 people drawn from every UK constituency for their views and put the results to politicians and those who stand to gain, or lose, most from the outcome; all before a live studio audience in Birmingham. Krishnan Guru-Murthy hosts.