File on 4 Investigates
News-making original journalism documentary series, investigating stories at home and abroad.
- Update frequency
- every 9 days
- Average duration
- 37 minutes
- Episodes
- 468
- Years Active
- 2010 - 2025
The Zombie Effect
It's estimated there are up to 150,000 so called zombie companies in the UK. They are often defined as businesses which are only able to pay off the interest on their debts and have little prospect o…
Second-Class Patients?
Britain has 1.5 million people with learning difficulties, and the number is growing. Campaigners say the health service is struggling to cope: the number of specialist nurses is falling, and though …
Too Many Chiefs?
In April next year, the SNP government in Scotland will merge 8 existing constabularies to create a single national police force. This is intended to bring efficiency savings by cutting out duplicati…
Public, Private and Profitable
The midnight collapse of the Government's plans for the West Coast main railway line once again raises questions about the outsourcing of public services to private providers. Public bodies of all ki…
Recoiling the Arab Spring
The ultra-conservative Salafist movement, which is said to be the fastest growing branch of Islam, has been blamed for being behind many of the recent violent protests over an anti-Muslim film which …
Alcohol Fraud
A criminal gang was recently jailed for one of the biggest ever alcohol smuggling rackets in the UK. It's become big business for organised crime according to HMRC, with tax losses in unpaid duty as …
Undercover Cops
How far should undercover police officers go to gather intelligence?
Jane Deith talks exclusively to women suing the Metropolitan police claiming they were tricked into long standing relationships wit…
Green on Blue
In the first of a new series, Gerry Northam investigates the rising number of so called "green on blue" attacks in which Afghan soldiers and policemen have turned their guns on British and other inte…
07/08/2012
World health chiefs have branded diesel exhaust emissions a major cause of cancer. Despite the efforts of car-makers to filter out the most noxious substances, these fumes still play a big part in ca…
Tuberculosis
Figures released this month reveal almost 9000 new tuberculosis cases in the United Kingdom last year, the highest level since the 1970s. The disease has risen by more than a third in the past decade…
Violent Veterans
Thousands of British troops have been deployed to conflict zones since 2001, in the so-called War on Terror. Research is now beginning to confirm what many people have suspected - that a sizeable min…
European Funding
The EU has allocated millions of pounds in grants to help our towns and cities regenerate. So why are some complaining they can't get their hands on the cash? European rules mean Britain has to put u…
Abuse in Sport
It was the Paul Hickson scandal in the mid 90s which first brought the issue of sexual abuse in sport to the public eye. The Olympic swimming coach was jailed for 17 years for raping and sexually abu…
Asset Returns
The Arab world's newest governments are desperate to retrieve billions banked in Britain by despots including Libya's Muammar Gaddafi and Hosni Mubarak of Egypt.
The money, they say, was stolen from t…
School Inspections
Ofsted has a new, hard-line chief inspector and a new, tougher inspection regime - and in the past few months that has led to a spike in the number of schools deemed inadequate. Predictably, there h…
Secret Justice
Ministers want to extend secret hearings to Britain's civil courts - so judges can deal with the increasing number of cases involving the intelligence services.
Justice Secretary Ken Clarke says it i…
NHS Queues
Hospital waiting times are a key measure of success for the NHS. But do the official figures accurately reflect the reality for patients across the UK?
In Scotland the waiting time data has been calle…
Police Racism
Is institutional racism still alive in the police? Black and Asian officers claim discrimination is thwarting progress through the ranks and destroying promising careers.
Witness Protection
After details of people under witness protection were leaked to a private investigator, Allan Urry asks if police are doing enough to protect witnesses whose lives are at risk.
A Bridge Too Far?
To the west of Edinburgh, construction of the new £1.5bn Forth road bridge will use steel from Poland, Spain and China. A local steel plant near Motherwell lost out as part of a consortium bidding f…