These include a change to payments for casual overtime - largely meaning short periods of working, such as dealing with an important message on a day off.

BBC: Analysis: Can police pay be cut?

Instead vagrants, who wandered from job to job, were frequently whipped and sent to prison for short periods if they weren't working.

BBC: Were single mothers better off in the 19th Century?

In recent months, a number of relatives of BBC Persian staff had been detained for short periods of time by the Iranian authorities and urged to get their relatives in London to either stop working for the BBC, or to "co-operate" with Iranian intelligence officials, Mr Thompson said.

BBC: Iran accused of intimidating BBC Persian staff