How is your NHS hospital doing on waiting times? Use our interactive tracker to see if treatment waits are getting better at your local hospital

How is your NHS hospital doing on waiting times? - BBC News
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Journalism Researcher (Environment) - BBC Verify Journalism Researcher (Environment) - BBC Verify

BBC Verify is recruiting for a journalism researcher specialising in the environment, based in Birmingham UK. It's a fixed term contract. More here:

careers.bbc.co.uk/job/Birmingh...

Planning permission for homes in England falls to record low Just over 30,000 projects got the go ahead, the lowest yearly figure since records started in 1979.

In England, the government wants to add 1.5m new homes by the end of the current parliament. But data out today confirms 2024 was a record low for planning permissions for housing. You can also use our interactive tool to see how many homes are required where you live
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Empty lobby with the bare blue carpet

It's like you were never here #NICAR25 but thanks for a fantastic conference, the learning and the great chats

NICAR 2025 schedule | March 6-9, 2025 | Minneapolis Welcome to the #NICAR25 conference schedule!

Starting at 9am at #NICAR25, we will show you how to make a map with your data in QGIS. Then at 10:15 we'll move on to geographic analysis including buffer zones. We're in Deer Lake schedules.ire.org/nicar-2025/i...

In the second session, we'll show you how to join spatial datasets when there's no common column in the data, create buffer zones you can use in your analysis and then turn those tricky point datasets into something you can interrogate in a spreadsheet - and more.

If you're at #NICAR25 and would like to learn how to make maps with your data - spatial analysis for absolute beginners - come to the sessions we're teaching Friday on QGIS. We'll go through the whole process from how to find your way around the software and the data through to making some maps.

Mapping China’s influence around the Panama Canal - BBC News How much influence does China have around the Panama Canal?

I'm going to try to start using this app a bit more so here's a scrolly piece we did a few weeks back that I think looks visually fantastic thanks to the maps by my colleague @erwanrivault.bsky.social - looking at the level of Chinese involvement around the Panama Canal www.bbc.co.uk/news/resourc...

I'll be heading to #NICAR25 this week where I'm looking forward to learning some skills and getting some ideas from some talented data journalist. If you fancy getting an introduction to mapping data with QGIS, I'm part of a team doing a couple of sessions on that too.

The year on year fall covers while the new government was outlining targets and planning reforms. But they need major increases in house building to do it. It makes the gap between the target and the current situation wider. The time between applications and building is measured in years, not months

The most reliable official data on new housing only comes out yearly and with an 8 month lag. But every new home must be law have an EPC. It can get lumpy - an EPC might have been registered before the home was ready to live in - but it gives us a good idea of direction of travel

Our interactive tool lets you see the target for your area, how that compares to the average number of new homes delivered per year and EPCs lodged in the last half of 2024. We've also got the rate of planning permission grants.

New homes fall again in government's first six months The BBC's housing tracker shows most regions of England had a year-on-year fall in new homes in second half of 2024.

The UK government has a target to deliver 1.5m new homes in England by the next general election. Tracking progress is difficult but we can use Energy Performance Certificates to give us an early indicator. In the first six months, new homes fell again year on year
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

John Prescott and me. I'm holding a shorthand notepad and pen. He's leaning back as I ask him something

Met John Prescott a few times as a young reporter (hence the Simon from Inbetweeners hair and tenth Doctor sideburns). He looked at my shorthand notes and said: "What you doing with that lot, writing a novel?"

Archery target with five arrows in the gold and one in the red

I'm properly chuffed with this today

Water bills: Record numbers of customers on social tariffs Some 1.6 million households were on social tariffs last year but support varies depending on where you live.

Different water companies have their own rules and criteria for helping people who might struggle to pay their bills. That means the level of support you can receive depends on where you live.
www.bbc.com/news/article...

I'm old enough to remember the early days of Twitter when lots of posts were all about Twitter and social media (felt very meta, arf). This is a lousy first post, sorry, but may as well get started.