大象传媒

Care homes are facing a lot of pressures right now - staff shortages, low occupancy because of the fear of catching Covid, and increased insurance and energy costs. Small and medium-sized companies run three quarters of all homes and they are complaining of a new problem - what they're calling a credit crunch, with banks unwilling to offer loans or extend overdrafts. We hear from Nadra Ahmed of the National Care Association which represents smaller care providers in England and Stephen Pegge from UK Finance which represents the banks.

We report on last night's Retail Week awards, known in the industry as the Oscars for shopkeepers. There was a special prize for 14 supermarkets. They collectively won the Outstanding Contribution award, for keeping us all fed during the pandemic. We hear from two of the winners, James Bailey, the chief executive of Waitrose, and Dawood Pervez, the managing director of the convenience store chain, Costcutter. They tell us their recollections of the first days of lockdown and some of the things they did to keep food on the shelves.

We examine GDPR, the data protection laws that were meant to help us take control of our personal details. It's now been three years since GDPR was introduced in the UK, giving people the legal right to ask businesses and organisations what data they hold on them. These regulations are also meant to make it easier for people to ask for information about them to be permanently erased. We hear from a listener who is concerned that her name and address is widely available after receiving a stream of unsolicited catalogues in the post. We also hear from Privacy International, a charity that investigates how data is generated and exploited.

Presenter: Winifred Robinson
Producer: Tara Holmes