Right, that’s it from me. We’ll be winding this blog down shortly but do continue to follow all breaking coronavirus news on our global live blog here. Have a good evening. Gavin Williamson and Ofqual have apologised to students and their parents, as they announced that all A-level and GCSE results in England will be based on teacher-assessed grades. In a spectacular U-turn, the education secretary announced the government would scrap the controversial standardisation model drawn up by the exams regulator to award grades in lieu of exams. Instead, both A-levels and GCSE results will revert to centre-assessed grades, which were submitted by schools earlier this summer. Read our full story here. The about-turn by the UK government came after the Welsh government and Northern Ireland executive confirmed that they too would scrap the standardisation model, meaning the vast majority of post-16 students across the UK will now be awarded grades based on teachers’ assessments. The announcement followed a day of mounting pressure on the UK government from a number of Tory MPs, including two serving ministers. Following the U-turn, the Tory chair of the Commons education committee, Robert Halfon, said the government has “serious questions” to answer over its handling of exam results. However, the announcement did not apply to BTec students, creating uncertainty for countless students of technical courses. Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor, said he would not withdraw the threat of legal action until the government confirmed that BTec students would also be given teacher-assessed grades. Greater Manchester Police says it has seen an “unacceptable increase” in the number of breaches of lockdown restrictions since they were imposed on the region on 31 June. Between Friday and Sunday, it recorded 863 incidents related to Covid-19. Of these, 62 related to breaches at licensed premises, the force said. Another food processing plant has been closed down temporarily following an outbreak of Covid-19 among staff. Four members of staff at the 2 Sisters chicken processing site, near Perth and Kinross in Scotland, have fallen ill while a further two people have tested positive for Covid-19 in the community. Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, said she was concerned about an increase in outbreaks around the country, including 207 cases in the large outbreak in Aberdeen, and smaller clusters in Coatbridge, Lanarkshire and in north-east Glasgow, both of which included schoolchildren. She said a further 26 Covid-19 cases had been recorded overnight – 13 of which were in the Grampian region which includes Aberdeen. That took Scotland’s historical total to 19,358, while the number of hospital cases rose overnight by five, to 248. Ryanair is to cancel almost one in five flights from its September and October schedules after a drop in bookings in the last 10 days, as Covid-19 cases have increased in Europe, leading to fresh quarantine restrictions. Europe’s biggest carrier said forward bookings had “noticeably weakened” and it would take 20% from its capacity to reflect demand, mainly cutting flight frequencies rather than routes.