George Osborne should postpone reforms to tax credits for a year to enable debate about the future of working-age benefits, a group of MPs has said.

Parliament's Work and Pensions Committee warned there was no "magic bullet" to protect low-paid workers.
The chancellor is to set out plans in his Autumn Statement to lessen the impact of planned cuts, after they were rejected by the House of Lords.
The Treasury said the MPs' report was out of date as the new plans were due.
In its report, the MPs also accuse the Treasury of being "unacceptably evasive" for failing to provide information about the impact of its measures on different income groups.
Meanwhile, the former Labour prime minister and architect of tax credits, Gordon Brown, has warned the changes will "plunge almost another million families into poverty".
Mr Osborne announced plans to cut £4.4bn from the tax credits system in his summer Budget in June, as part of plans to save £12bn from the welfare bill.
Opponents of the changes, due to come into effect in April, say more than one million existing recipients - many of whom work but are on low incomes - will be some £1,300 a year worse off as a result.
But the government says the majority will benefit from other policies, including increases in the personal income tax allowance, an expansion of free childcare and the introduction of the National Living Wage.
However, the committee, which has a Labour chair but a Conservative majority, said these measures "should not be confused with compensation for tax credits cuts".
It said that "at best" only half of the families set to lose out from the tax credit changes would benefit from an increased personal tax allowance, while "only one third" would benefit from the introduction of the National Living Wage.
"The benefits to those who are helped are generally dwarfed by the cuts, especially in 2016-17," the report said, adding that "by 2020-21, 78% of families will be on average £1,500 worse off in real terms".
Tax credits are a series of benefits introduced by the last Labour government to help low-paid families. There are two types: Working Tax Credit (WTC) for those in work, and Child Tax Credit (CTC) for those with children.
Under the government's existing proposals, the income threshold for Working Tax Credits - £6,420 - would be cut to £3,850 a year from April.
In other words, as soon as someone earned £3,850, they would see their payments reduced. The income threshold for those only claiming CTCs would be cut from £16,105 to £12,125.
The rate at which those payments are cut would also get faster. Currently, for every £1 claimants earn above the threshold, they lose 41p. This is known as the taper rate. But from April, the taper rate would accelerate to 48p.
There would be similar reductions for those who claim work allowances under the new Universal Credit.
Tax credits, pensions and the generation game
Who will be the winners and losers?
A high-stakes battle
The MPs also cautioned Mr Osborne to "resist the temptation to raid Universal Credit" to pay for his tax credit adjustments, warning it would "either shift the burden to different low-income families or undermine the objective of making work pay".
"There is no magic bullet within the tax credit system. One of three things has to give: the impact on poverty, work incentives or the cost," it said.
"We recommend that if, indeed, the effects cannot be satisfactorily mitigated, the government pause any reforms to tax credits until 2017-18.
"This would allow a broader discussion of the options in their proper context."
Committee chairman, Labour MP Frank Field, suggested tax credits should be abolished in their current form and replaced with a new system.
"No-one has been able to provide the committee with a satisfactory series of mitigating policies to combat the impact of cuts in tax credits," he said.
"My advice to the chancellor would be to pause and use the next 18 months to bring forward a major overhaul to abolish tax credits as we know them.
"A new system could come in fully by 2020 when the chancellor's National Living Wage will be paying a wage of £16,000 per year.
"This would allow him to question whether a reformed tax credit system shouldn't be remodelled to help only lower-earning families with children."
Commenting on the report, a Treasury spokesman said it was "out of date" because Mr Osborne had already said he would listen to concerns and announce new transitional measures in his Autumn Statement.
The spokesman said the examples cited in the report did not consider other measures the government had introduced or was introducing to support working families.
He said these included "free childcare that will be worth £5,000 a year per child, freezes in council tax and fuel duty throughout the last Parliament, higher public spending on the NHS and schools", and the "upward pressure on wages up the income scale that we are already starting to see thanks to the new National Living Wage".
He added: "The government's end goal is clear - this country cannot have an unlimited welfare budget that squeezes out other areas of public expenditure."
But Conservative MPs have continued to call for a rethink of the plans.
Craig Williams said a delay would give government "more time to look at the system" as a whole while Stephen McPartland, citing research from the House of Commons library, said it was "unacceptable" that a lone parent with two children working 35 hours a week was set to lose more than £5,000 due to changes to working and child tax credits.


Wales wing George North will leave Scarlets at the end of the season to join Premiership side Northampton Saints on a three-year deal.

The 20-year-old had one year left on his Scarlets contract but was unable to agree fresh terms.
North has scored nine tries in 10 RaboDirect Pro12 matches this season.
We are obviously massively disappointed to be losing a player of George's world-class quality and ability
And he took his tally of Wales caps to 31 by featuring in all of his country's games on the way to this year's Six Nations title.
"We made George the very best offer we could," said Scarlets chief executive Mark Davies.
"However, we have to fully understand and appreciate that George's quite unique value in the rugby marketplace, possibly inside Wales, but certainly outside Wales, is considerably greater than the Scarlets as an independent business can reach.
"We are obviously massively disappointed to be losing a player of George's world-class quality and ability from Parc y Scarlets, however we appreciate the reality that the profile and success he has achieved in such a short space of time attracts huge attention and makes him a prized player for any club in Europe."
Saints director of rugby Jim Mallinder added: "George is an outstanding talent and we're looking forward to him being a part of our squad for at least the next three years.
"Despite still being at the start of his career he has shown repeatedly that he has the ability and temperament to succeed at the highest level of the game, and we believe that he will play a big role as we look to take the next steps in our development."
The Llanelli-based region have previously said they sought a buyer for North after he rejected a new three-year deal.
But the Welsh Rugby Union accused the region of offering North to French clubs before the start of the year.
The accusation triggered a stinging response from Scarlets, who were supported by the other three regions in condemning the WRU for discussing North's contract situation in public.
As a result, the issue of central contracts for Welsh Test players has resurfaced, with the WRU inviting the regions to a meeting to explore all options.
Scarlets (debut in September 2010)
Appearances: 38
Points: 70 (14 tries)
Wales (debut in November 2010)
Appearances: 31
Points: 60 (12 tries)
*Correct at 9 April, 2013
Such a model is designed to ensure all the best Welsh players remain in Wales.
By leaving Scarlets, North will join France-bound centre Jamie Roberts and Dan Lydiate in exiting a Welsh region at the end of the current season.
Wales prop Gethin Jenkins has bucked the trend by opting to return to Cardiff Blues from Toulon ahead of the 2013-14 season.
And North's fellow Wales wing  at this stage of his career.
Likewise, Ospreys have  until the end of the 2015-2016 season.
However, Mike Phillips (Bayonne), James Hook (Perpignan) and Luke Charteris (Perpignan) are just three of many Wales internationals who have been tempted to leave by the offer of higher wages.
Welsh speaker North, who was born in the English town of King's Lynn, made his Test debut as an 18-year-old against South Africa in 2010.
He scored two tries on that occasion and went on to play a starring role as Wales reached the 2011 World Cup semi-finals, before helping them secure the 2012 and 2013 Six Nations titles.
Since making his debut for the region in September 2010, North has made 38 competitive appearances for the Scarlets - seven more than he has made for Wales.


Spanish police say they have shot dead five suspected terrorists in the town of Cambrils in a second vehicle attack, after an earlier incident in Barcelona killed 13 people and injured dozens.

The city is a popular tourist destination for holidaymakers and a number of tourists caught up in the attacks have been speaking to BBC News about their ordeal.
Kevin Kwast from Texas in the US,  is on holiday with his family in the city. He said: "I was eating with my family in La Boqueria market very near where the first crash occurred."
"Hundreds of people started stampeding through the market running south east. We started running with them going outside right where casualties were already on the ground near Maccabi restaurant.
"A smaller crowd was running away from that scene to the north west.  We got trapped between the crowds and the heavily-armed police running around the area.
"Police pushed us into a money transfer shop and we were sheltering there for over an hour."
"My friends and I were in a shop near Las Ramblas when we were told of the attack," said Robert Yelito from Texas who was in a pop-up shop.
"At first we were locked in the store then we were allowed out.
"Everyone was outside trying to find out what happened then a stampede began.
"We ran into a random apartment."
Richard Gregg from Kent, UK describes the confusion moments after the attack: "We were just waking into Las Ramblas as the crash happened."
"Half the crowd didn't know what was going on but others were shouting about someone driving into the crowd. There was a woman shouting 'there's blood everywhere'.
"People understood it was serious given the number of police piling into the area.
"The police were arriving at the scene from surrounding roads. When we got there the place was swarming with officers.
"In less than five minutes it was clear it was something serious. That set up a chain reaction. There was a bit of a panic.
"We made our way to our apartment as police were clearing Las Ramblas.
"Within minutes there were police officers running and driving through the streets obviously looking for someone.
"We could see the emergency services on Las Ramblas. Shops were shutting down and people running to get away.
Stephanie Walton from Lincoln, UK was in a bar on Las Ramblas when she noticed a crowd running towards her.
"I heard a loud bang followed by screaming while I was having a drink with my boyfriend," she said.
"A crowed rushed towards me and it was mayhem. I wanted to run, but my boyfriend who is ex-military said to stay put.
"We went into the cafe and hid in the corner. I could see bodies in the road before we closed the shutters.
"Two local boys offered me some water. When I told them what had happened they burst into tears."
Katie K is on holiday with her friends in Barcelona. She says she felt overwhelmed by what had happened.
"We were heading to the shops and everything got very busy. We went into one and the security guard closed the doors.
"We were confused as to what was happening. The guard then let us out of the shop.
"There were lots of ambulances and people screaming, as well as helicopters. The roads started to clear, and we started to worry.
"We went to get a drink from a supermarket. When we came out people started to run towards us.
"Feeling very scared, we ran away from the crowd not knowing yet what had happened.
"We looked up and realised a van had driven into the crowd.
"We are still shaken. We were told tourists should stay inside."
Scott Strudwick and his family from Jersey were in a shop when it was evacuated. He said: "We were in the Placa De Catalina when people started fleeing the street as we heard a large number of police sirens."
"Police then ushered us into shops and we went in to El Corte Ingles shopping mall on the Placa.
"Then there was panic in the shop as there were rumours that there was gunfire in the shop. There was more panic when we were ushered to the back of the shop. We ran to hide in a store room.
"People were crying and on their phones trying to understand what was happening.
"It was very frightening for our young children.
"We were ultimately evacuated out of a side exit of the shop, and then there was more confusion as we didn't know where we were.
The police ushered us away from the area, but we did now know how to get back to our hotel."
As people were still coming to terms with what had happened at Las Ramblas, a second attack was foiled in the nearby town off Cambrils in the early hours of Friday morning.
Spanish police shot dead five suspected terrorists.  The attackers' vehicle overturned and when the men got out they were quickly fired upon by police, media say. One was reportedly brandishing a knife.
The men were wearing explosive belts, police said, and a series of controlled explosions was carried out. The belts proved to be fake.
Fitzroy Davies from Wolverhampton in the UK is on holiday with a group of friends. One of whom was hit in the leg by shrapnel.
"We were sitting at a bar when three girls came running in with fear on their faces.
"Next thing one guy stood up and said 'look down the road - run!'.
"I thought it was a hoax so I started filming. But then I saw the guy halfway down the road with things strapped to his chest. Someone was shouting at him. Then the attacker ran at everybody.
"The police came and started shouting at the guy. They shot him several times and he fell over - he stood back up and the police shot him again.
"He was smiling at them when they shot him."
Miquel Murriadamas, from Cambrils, was having a drink with some friends outside a bar.
"People started running and shouting for us to get up and leave. At first I wasn't sure what was happening, I thought it might have been an accident.
"Then I saw a man walking towards us with his arms up and what looked like an explosive belt on.
"Suddenly a car pulled up and two agents got out and they shouted at him to stay still. He kept walking forwards and there was gunfire.
"He stayed still and then started to walk forwards again. There was another blast of gunfire.
"We were moved into the bar and those who could watched through the windows. I was actually pretty calm because I could see that the situation was under control and there were enough people in hysterics.
"We had to stay there for two and a half hours and then we left with the police."
By Rozina Sini, BBC's UGC and Social News team


Employees working extra hours are to get vouchers to help with housework such as cleaning and ironing under a pilot scheme in south-west Germany.

Two towns in Baden-Wuerttemberg are running the publicly funded scheme, aimed at both supporting family life and reducing the shadow economy.
Employees covered by social insurance get a subsidy of 8 euros (Â£6.7; $8.6) an hour for additional time worked.
The vouchers can exchanged at agencies supplying domestic services.
Ralf Kleindiek, state secretary in the federal ministry of family affairs, stressed that the goal was to "support qualified women who are heavily involved in family work but would like to return to work or do more work".
Launched last month, the project is due to run until February 2019, the Frankfurter Allgemeine (FAZ) newspaper reports (in German).
It was inspired by a similar scheme in Belgium, the family affairs ministry said in a press release (in German).
Employment agencies issue vouchers to eligible employees in the towns of Aalen and Heilbronn, the FAZ reports.
The vouchers can then be redeemed by service agencies whose staff have social insurance.
Between 75% and 83% of helpers employed in German households are unregistered, according to an estimate by the German Business Institute in Cologne, quoted by the paper.
"With professional help in the home, it is easier to reconcile work and family life," said Dr Kleindiek.
"On the other hand, we are strengthening service companies with the pioneering project and effectively combating illegal work, since the vouchers may only be redeemed where the companies employ their employees with social insurance."
Service vouchers have reportedly enjoyed success in Belgium since they were introduced in 2003.


A Pembrokeshire company which flouted data regulations by sending over four million spam texts has been fined.

PRS Media, trading as Purus Digital and based in Dale, was fined £140,000 by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
The information it used to send texts was taken from its own competition website where people had to agree to marketing as a condition of entering.
The action was prompted by complaints from members of the public.
The ICO said the condition on its website did not amount to consent as the law states people must have a genuine choice over whether or not to consent to marketing.
Ken Macdonald, head of ICO regions, said: "Nuisance marketing, whether it's by calls to people's landline or mobile, or through spam texts, causes disruption, annoyance and, in the worst cases, serious upset.
"We issue fines like these to firms behind nuisance marketing to send a clear message that such action will not be tolerated."
The company could not be contacted for a comment.


Demolition teams have moved in to the port of Calais in France on Tuesday to break down more shelters in the migrant camp known as the "Jungle".

1 March 2016 Last updated at 15:57 GMT
French authorities say the migrants must move to cleaner and safer shipping containers on another part of the site.
But many fear this will mean they will have to stay in France, and give up their hopes of travelling to Britain.
BBC reporter Anna Holligan is in Calais and sent Newsround this report.


The Skye Live music festival has opened in Portree.

Running through until late Saturday night, the festival's acts include Skye musicians, DJs and bands such as Niteworks.
Also performing over the two days will be King Creosote, Public Service Broadcasting, Donnie Munro, Skipinnish, Capercaillie and The Revenge.
Skye-born stunt cyclist Danny MacAskill and his Drop and Roll show will also feature during the festival.


Newcastle United is the great football soap opera played out on the banks of the Tyne - and it was a grim storyline after Saturday's home defeat by Bournemouth left them in the Premier League relegation zone.

Magpies great and BBC Sport pundit Alan Shearer told Match of the Day the club was "a mess from top to bottom" while besieged manager Steve McClaren admitted the display in the 3-1 loss was "going down material".
Media playback is not supported on this device
Newcastle's elder statesman and former chairman Sir John Hall said McClaren should be sacked, saying: "It's probably time he goes. You've got to find someone to harness the team."
So other than that… why has this giant of a club found itself in the sort of crisis it attracts on a regular basis and facing relegation once more?
This is the age-old - and unfair - question aimed at the Toon Army.
Expectations should be high at Newcastle United. This is a one-club city with a huge stadium that is a landmark, bang in the middle of it, attracting 52,000 fanatical supporters on a regular basis.
This is a captive audience with a burning passion for the game and their football club - so, yes, expectations should not be played down.
Newcastle's fans do not expect too much, however. They simply expect to see a club given such backing to at least have a crack at winning trophies. Too much of the Mike Ashley regime has been about preserving Premier League status, with even the FA Cup regarded as an irrelevance until this season.
Newcastle have only had two top-10 finishes in the past six campaigns, with fifth place under Alan Pardew in 2011-12 almost looking like the glory era.
Since the start of last season, out of 66 Premier League games, Newcastle have only won 16 and lost 35. Expectation is certainly being built up.
Those vast crowds, of course, bring pressure - but no more than 76,000 watching at Old Trafford or 60,000 at Arsenal - and every Newcastle player knows they will be elevated to almost deity status should they give those supporters the success they crave.
Newcastle's fans are not expecting Premier League titles or Champions League successes - just more than the constant diet of mediocrity they have been fed.
In reality, the Toon Army has been patient. This is club that has not won a major trophy since the 1969 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup - a little expectation is excusable.
McClaren was handed a three-year contract in June - an appointment seemingly long in the making after Pardew left for Crystal Palace and John Carver held the fort, and one confirmed despite a dismal end to his tenure at Derby County when they failed to make the Championship play-offs despite strong financial backing.
It was an underwhelming move given McClaren's credibility problems in England since his disastrous spell in charge of the national side - but he talked big by insisting trophies and the top eight was his target.
The top eight looks a long way off with six wins and 16 defeats from 28 games, and the FA Cup run ending in the third round at Watford.
McClaren won a big reputation as a coach working alongside Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, notably in the Treble season of 1998-99 - but his managerial career has been a mixed bag.
He won the League Cup at Middlesbrough in 2004 and Eredivisie with FC Twente in the Netherlands in 2009-10.
But he was a failure at Wolfsburg and in a second spell at Twente before fruitless times at Derby and this shocking stay at Newcastle. He also had a 112-day stay at Nottingham Forest in 2011, but that was ended by differences with the hierarchy as much as football matters.
Players who have worked under him speak in glowing terms of his ability on the training field - but such references are harder to find as a manager.
Martin Keown, who worked under McClaren when he was on England's coaching staff, said: "I thought he was an excellent coach - but no, not a manager for me."
He added McClaren looked like "a rabbit caught in the headlights" in his post-Bournemouth interview.
Where questions could be asked is whether McClaren is working with the players he really wants as, for many seasons, Newcastle chief scout Graham Carr has been a major player behind the scenes.
The bottom line, though, is that ultimate responsibility lies with McClaren and even his place on Newcastle's board - that rather unusual award that came with his appointment - will not save him if managing director Lee Charnley decides he must go.
And, given McClaren's demeanour, admission the club are heading down, and miserable results, it is surely when rather than if he goes.
Mike Ashley has long been regarded as a toxic presence at Newcastle United, described by fans as a member of the 'Cockney Mafia' running the club - but can he be blamed for this season's debacle?
Of course he agreed to McClaren's appointment but this was very much driven by Charnley, and Ashley even stepped down from the board last summer.
McClaren joined along with Charnley, chief scout Carr and club ambassador and former captain Bob Moncur.
Ashley also sanctioned that £80m spending spree, that started in the summer and continued in January with the arrival of England pair Jonjo Shelvey from Swansea City for £12m and Andros Townsend from Tottenham for a similar figure.
It has had little or no impact but while Ashley can be accused of many things, he cannot be accused of keeping his hand in his pocket this season.
On that final day last season, in a rare public statement, he insisted he would not sell Newcastle "at any price" until they won a trophy. It may be a long stay.
Ashley's problem, one that still exists today, is he is regarded as a malign figure by the Toon Army and has been almost since he bought Hall's 41.6% stake in the club in May 2007, taking full control later that year.
He won fans over by re-appointing the beloved Kevin Keegan as manager in January 2008, but Keegan left unhappy with the hierarchy eight months later and Ashley has never been well regarded since.
Ashley wanted to sell Newcastle as far back as September 2008 - issuing a 1,644-word statement explaining why - but is still there, locked in a loveless relationship with the fans that casts a constant cloud over the club.
He has backed Newcastle with cash this season but once more it has resulted in failure.
Newcastle, with its ground and potential, should be a huge going concern but it is heading towards the rocks, in this case the Championship.
Ashley insists he will be staying - but relegation may change his mind.
Carr, Newcastle's powerful 71-year-old chief scout, likes a low profile but has been pushed into the spotlight by the failure of the club's recent recruitment policy.
Carr signed an eight-year contract in June 2012 - reward for bringing the likes of Hatem Ben Arfa, Cheick Tiote, Yohan Cabaye, Papiss Cisse and Sylvain Marveaux to Tyneside.
The golden touch has since deserted the old campaigner, with players brought in this season lacking the leadership qualities and stomach for a Premier League relegation fight.
Newcastle, in search of goals on Saturday, did not even start with Aleksandar Mitrovic, bought for £14.5m from Anderlecht in the summer. And Florian Thauvin, signed from Marseille for £12m last August, was sent back on loan in January after looking out of his depth.
Georginio Wijnaldum, signed from PSV Eindhoven for £14.5m, has shone fitfully while Chancel Mbemba, an £8.4m capture from Anderlecht, has looked promising.
McClaren has talked up the fighting spirit of Shelvey and local boy Jack Colback but a succession of performances without fight do not support his words.
It is significant, however, that Carr's strategy of recruitment from abroad was ditched in January and he is now coming under fierce scrutiny.
And there is no promise in youth either. Shearer pointed out the lack of academy players coming through, confirmed by the fact Newcastle's Under-21 team is two places off the bottom in Premier League Division Two while they are ninth out of 12 in the under-18 table.
McClaren, in a brutally honest interview after the Bournemouth game, admitted Newcastle would be relegated on such form. It may just have been his farewell speech.
It was not the talk of a manager full of faith in his players and Ashley and his colleagues - with Charnley the main powerbroker - must have been dismayed at such a bleak bulletin being delivered by the man supposedly in charge of inspiring his players.
So results must change, self-evidently, but there is a growing case to change a manager who has looked anything but the "perfect fit" described by Charnley in the summer.
Recruitment has been beyond average and the production line from Newcastle's academy appears to have developed a bad case of rust.
And for a man whose task was outlined as that top-eight finish and who was "heavily incentivised to try and win a cup competition" the future looks bleak.


A repatriation fund set up by people in Newry, County Down, 19 months ago has said it has brought the bodies of 60 people who died abroad back to the island of Ireland.

It was set up after Newry man Kevin Bell, who was 26, died in a suspected hit-and-run in New York in June 2013.
Money left over from repatriating Kevin's body has helped other families across Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Kevin Bell's father, Colin Bell, described the fund as "Kevin's legacy".
"It was started by the people of Newry to bring Kevin home," he said.
"And the funds left over have been used to help people who were in the same situation as us, who lost their loved ones abroad, to take some of the stress away for them."
He said the Kevin Bell repatriation trust is assisting four families across Ireland this week, and that it is there to "help anyone that needs it".
At a meeting of the Irish foreign affairs committee on Wednesday, GAA president Liam Ã“ NÃ©ill praised the work being done by the fund.
He said it showed that GAA members were "helping build communities abroad".
Mr Bell said: "We are not a GAA charity, but we are a GAA family and glad to get recognition from the GAA.
"We take everybody home. We've taken people to the Falls Road, the Shankill Road, it's not just for people in the GAA community," Mr Bell added.
"We understand that people want to get their loved ones home as quickly as possible."
Mr Bell said the fund had received a humanitarian president's award from the GAA, and that he was glad Kevin's death had not been in vain.
"It'll not bring Kevin back, but it will be his legacy," he said.


League One side Wigan have signed full-back Kevin McNaughton on a one-year deal and Watford midfielder Sean Murray on an initial one-month loan.

McNaughton, 32, had been on trial with the Latics after leaving Cardiff City at the end of last season.
He spent time on loan at Bolton over the past two years and had also been on trial at Blackpool this summer.
Republic of Ireland Under-21 man Murray, 21, has played 84 times since coming through Watford's youth ranks.
The pair are Wigan's 13th and 14th new signings ahead of the League One season, which starts at Coventry on Saturday.
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page.


Ghanaian side Right to Dream and O'Higgins of Chile triumphed in Friday night's SuperCupNI finals at the Ballymena Showgrounds.

Right to Dream retained the Junior Section crown thanks to a 3-0 victory over Co Londonderry.
Emmanuel Bam converted a penalty before doubling the lead and Kelvin Ofori added the third in added time.
David Salazar's second-half double gave O'Higgins a 2-0 win over Scottish team Hibernian in the Premier decider.
Salazar controlled before smashing in the opener and the striker volleyed home his second goal.
O'Higgins captain Tomas Alarcon also twice struck the woodwork as the Chileans secured a deserved victory.


Plans to turn Aberdeen's historic Triple Kirks into an office development are being scrapped in favour of a new proposal for student flats.

Developer Dandara said it was responding to a change in market conditions, with supply now outstripping demand for offices.
The tower and spire, built in the 1800s, became derelict in the 1970s.
Dandara said it was working with the city council's planning department over the change.


The government has confirmed up to £5m in funding to rebuild a bridge damaged "beyond repair" by flooding over Christmas.

Elland Bridge, in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, partially collapsed on 29 December.
A further £500,000 will help pay for an interim footbridge across the Calder and Hebble Navigation
Calderdale Council said the footbridge was expected to be in place by the end of the week.
The footbridge, 98ft (30m) long and 4 ft 11 in (1.5m) wide, will run between Park Road and Elland Bridge Road.
The Yorkshire MP and government flood envoy for the region, Robert Goodwill, said: " A good local transport system is the lifeblood of the region, and key to a thriving economy.
"This is an important step in keeping the recovery effort on track in Yorkshire."
Tim Swift, the leader of Calderdale Council, said Elland Bridge was of strategic importance to the local community, for local businesses and for tourism.
He said work was being done as "quickly as possible" to the get the footbridge open.


Police investigating the mutilation of a horse in Cornwall have said they "cannot rule out" a link with a Satanic ritual.

The stallion was found dead in a field in Stithians on Monday with knife injuries to its head and body.
The attack, which happened shortly after St Winebald Day - a date on the Satanic calendar - has prompted speculation of a ritualistic killing.
"Obviously that is one line we're going to pursue," Insp Chris Strickland said.
But he added it was not "the only line" officers were investigating.
The officer from Devon and Cornwall Police said he was aware of discussions on internet forums linking the killing to a Satanic ritual and, although it was a "strong possibility", he insisted police also had other leads.
Mr Strickland said he was keeping an open mind on the subject.
"I have done my own research on the internet and there are people out there who have these beliefs and so that is a strong possibility, but there are other leads we have got as well and other possibilities or motives," he said.
The horse was attacked between 16:00 GMT on Sunday and midday on Monday.
The horse's owner, Dawn Jewell, said she was devastated by what had happened to the horse she had raised from a foal.
Her mother, Vivien Allaway, said they were both "well aware" of rumours and speculation about Satanic links.
"It's not based on fact, but it's plausible so we can't dismiss it," she said.
Insp Strickland said the force was taking the killing seriously.
"If they able to do that to a horse, what else are they capable of doing?" he said.
"There's a rural community out there who are going to be very worried and frightened by what's happened."
Initial post-mortem tests on the two-year-old stallion named Erik were carried out by a vet at the scene and a full forensic examination will be conducted.
A Devon horse lover has offered a Â£2,000 reward for information leading to the capture of the attacker.
Graham Rickard said: "It's a poor defenceless animal and it's a sick crime. I hope they get caught."
Animal lovers, including the BBC horseracing presenter Clare Balding, have been making their feelings of horror known in large numbers via Twitter.
Maureen Rolls, of South West Equine Protection, said it was the worst case of horse mutilation she had seen in 30 years.
"It's appalling. We have had cases of cutting the hair on manes and tails, but this is beyond that.
"I can't understand how anyone could do this."
Dyfed-Powys Police have confirmed they are investigating an attack on a pony in Carmarthenshire on 5 January which saw the animal suffer similar injuries to Erik.


Aberdeen and Dundee outnumber Scottish Premiership leaders Celtic in the PFA Scotland team of the season.

Left-back Kieran Tierney and striker Leigh Griffiths are the only members of Celtic's squad to receive enough votes from their fellow professionals.
Right-back Shay Logan and midfielders Graeme Shinnie, Kenny McLean and Jonny Hayes are from the second-top Dons.
Goalkeeper Scott Bain and strikers Kane Hemmings and Greg Stewart are from a Dundee side outside of the top six.
The remaining players, in a 4-3-3 formation, are central defenders Alim Ozturk, of Hearts, and Andrew Davies, of Ross County.
Griffiths, Hayes, Hemmings and Stewart make up the shortlist for PFA Scotland Player of the Year.
Having won the Championship title, Rangers dominate their division's team of the year with five representatives.
Second-top Falkirk and third-placed Hibernian have three each.
Dunfermline Athletic have four players in the League One team of the season, while East Fife have the same number in the League Two list, with both having won their respective titles.
The Fifers' player-manager, Gary Naysmith, the 37-year-old former Scotland left-back, makes the League Two XI.
Scott Bain (Dundee)
Shay Logan (Aberdeen)
Alim Ozturk (Heart of Midlothian)
Andrew Davies (Ross County)
Kieran Tierney (Celtic)
Jonny Hayes (Aberdeen)
Kenny McLean (Aberdeen)
Graeme Shinnie (Aberdeen)
Kane Hemmings (Dundee)
Leigh Griffiths (Celtic)
Greg Stewart (Dundee)
Danny Rogers (Falkirk)
James Tavernier (Rangers)
Darren McGregor (Hibernian)
Peter Grant (Falkirk)
Lee Wallace (Rangers)
Jason Holt (Rangers)
John McGinn (Hibernian)
Barrie McKay (Rangers)
John Baird (Falkirk)
Martyn Waghorn (Rangers)
Jason Cummings (Hibernian)
Graeme Smith (Peterhead)
Nicky Devlin (Ayr United)
Michael Dunlop (Albion Rovers)
Ben Richards-Everton (Dunfermline Athletic)
Paddy Boyle (Ayr United)
Liam Watt (Airdrieonians)
Andy Geggan (Dunfermline Athletic)
Joe Cardle (Dunfermline Athletic)
Greig Spence (Cowdenbeath)
Rory McAllister (Peterhead)
Faissal el Bakhtaoui (Dunfermline Athletic)
Chris Smith (Stirling Albion)
Ricky Little (Arbroath)
Jonathan Page (East Fife)
Gary Naysmith (East Fife)
Scott Linton (Clyde)
Matty Flynn (Annan Athletic)
Kyle Wilkie (East Fife)
Bobby Linn (Arbroath)
Peter Weatherson (Annan Athletic)
Nathan Austin (East Fife)
Craig Gunn (Elgin City)


Kevin Pietersen has been bought by the Delhi Daredevils for £880,000 (90m rupees) in the Indian Premier League auction in Bangalore.

The 33-year-old Surrey batsman, who had been expected to fetch a higher price, is available for the full tournament after being discarded by England.
Pietersen's was the third highest price on the first day of auctions.
India's Yuvraj Singh was bought for a larger sum - £1.37m (140m rupees) - by Royal Challengers Bangalore.
A total of 514 players will be up for sale for the seventh edition of the IPL.
Pietersen played last season for the Delhi side, but they initially chose not to retain him because of his expected international commitments.
Media playback is not supported on this device
Pietersen was the only current or former England international to sell on the first day of this two-day auction.
England players Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Jade Dernbach, Craig Kieswetter, Luke Wright, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Rikki Clarke and Simon Jones failed to sell. They will go under the hammer again tomorrow in Bangalore.
Each franchise has a spending cap of £5.87m (600m rupees).
This year, players are being bought in Indian rupees instead of US dollars for the first time.
Other players bought in the first round of auction on Wednesday included Australia's Mitchell Johnson for £640,000 (65m rupees) by Kings XI Punjab and David Warner for £540,000 (55m rupees) by Sunrisers Hyderabad; South Africa's Jacques Kallis for £540,000 by Kolkata Knight Riders; and India's Virender Sehwag for £310,000 (32m rupees) by Kings XI Punjab.
The current record paid for a single player was set in 2011, when India batsman Gautam Gambhir was signed for £1.47m ($2.4m).
The IPL starts in April, but while the amount available for player salaries has trebled since the league began in 2008, profits of the teams have not kept pace.
For England: 37 matches, 1176 runs at an average of 37.93
In the IPL: 21 matches, 634 runs at 42.26
The tournament has also been affected by allegations of corruption with a top cricket official recently found guilty of illegally passing on information to bookmakers, the BBC's Sanjoy Majumder in Delhi says.
The seventh edition of the 20-over tournament, which features eight teams, mixes floodlit cricket with Bollywood glitz and high-profile corporate sponsorship and runs from 8 April to 30 May.
Any England players on central or incremental contracts who are selected for the home limited-overs series against Sri Lanka starting on 20 May, must be back in the UK by 13 May.
No such restrictions will apply to Pietersen after he was released from his central contract following England's 5-0 Ashes whitewash in Australia.
The England and Wales Cricket Board said on Sunday that it had discarded Pietersen because it wanted an England team based on "trust" with all players "pulling in the same direction".
Pietersen, who signed a new contract on Monday to play county cricket for Surrey, has played 21 IPL matches for either the Bangalore Royal Chargers or Delhi Daredevils, but missed last season's competition through injury.


Overcrowding, staff shortages and four deaths in custody have led to a "very challenging" year at a Buckinghamshire jail, a prison watchdog has said.

The Independent Monitoring Board annual report said inmates at HMP Woodhill in Milton Keynes were having to spend more time locked in their cells.
It also found rehabilitation opportunities were limited.
Governor Rob Davis said it was a "true reflection" but the prison had "moved on since the report".
The report, which covers 12 months from June 2013, describes Woodhill as a "complex, diverse establishment, very demanding to manage".
Staff morale was low, while concerns about safety, control and discipline, which featured in the previous year's report, had not been dealt with satisfactorily.
There were shortages of staff at all grades with a high take-up of voluntary redundancy and a recruitment freeze imposed by the National Offender Management Service.
Other concerns included shortages of toiletries, toilet paper, towels and bed linen. Repairs to equipment took too long.
Rehabilitation was "minimal" with "few opportunities for purposeful activity, be it education or work".
Mr Davis said: "We understand the pressures as a prison service we are under but there are some good points in [the report]."
Complaints over concerns such as bullying had "reduced considerably" and there were "many dedicated, hard-working staff", he said.
Staff had come in from other prisons and inmates could now work for qualifications.
"I'm not in charge of a poor-performing prison, I'm in charge of a very good prison, with very professional people working here," he said.
"There is always room for improvement and Woodhill has got some ground to make [up] .... I am very confident we will make those changes.
"I am confident I have got the team here that can drive the place forward."
The IMB has submitted the report to the Justice Secretary.


Wales manager Chris Coleman hopes Gareth Bale stays in Real Madrid rather than return to the Premier League.

The 26-year-old forward has been linked with a move to Manchester United from the Bernabeu Stadium.
Coleman is in St Petersburg, Russia, for the World Cup 2018 qualifying draw, and said he felt La Liga suited the Welshman better than the "unforgiving" Premier League.
"Speaking selfishly, I hope he stays in Madrid," he told Sky Sport News.
"La Liga has real quality, but the physicality is different.
"The Premier League is the most unforgiving league in the world and players get weary in the second half of the season.
"Gareth is not as fatigued coming back to us - particularly in February and March - as he would be if he was playing in the Premier.
"I've not talked to him about it, and whatever he wants to do he'll get out [Wales's] 100% backing."
The draw for the qualifying stages of the World Cup takes place at 16:00 BST on Saturday, with Wales among the top seeds after rising to 10th-place in the Fifa world rankings.
Cardiff-born Bale has been the key player in Wales's improvement, scoring five goals in six matches to help Coleman's team to the top of Group B in Euro 2016 qualifying.
His international form has not wavered, in spite of some criticism of his play in Spain.
Bale's world-record £85m transfer from Tottenham in 2013 was followed by a successful first season at Real where he scored goals in the finals of the European Champions League and Copa del Rey.
But he struggled to recapture that form last season.
However, former Italy World Cup winning captain Fabio Cannavaro believes Bale will get better at Madrid.
"He's a great player," said Cannavaro, who led Italy to World Cup victory in 2006.
"He's starting to know the Spanish League because I think he found it a little bit different. But this season I think he can improve more."


England's James Willstrop stunned world number one Mohamed Elshorbagy to reach the World Championships last eight.

Willstrop, 32, has slipped to world number 24 after suffering a career-threatening hip injury.
But he took 64 minutes to beat Egypt's Elshorbagy 11-4 11-7 10-12 11-7 in Seattle to reach the quarter-finals.
"In the context of everything that has gone on over the past 18 months this is one of my best ever performances," said Willstrop.
Willstrop joins fellow countryman and the man he lost to in last year's Commonwealth Games final, second seed Nick Matthew, in the last eight.
"I feel great for the moment but I can't get too carried away - it's not the end," he said.
In the quarter-finals, Yorkshireman Willstrop faces Colombian Miguel Angel Rodriguez, who has become the first South American to reach this stage (Saturday, 02:00 GMT).
Matthew beat Mohamed Elshorbagy's brother, Marwan Elshorbagy, 13-11 12-10 11-5. He now plays Egypt's Tarek Momen (Saturday, 04:00 GMT).


A third bridge across the Menai Strait could be back on the agenda, according to the Welsh government.

It says consultants will be appointed to look at ways to alleviate traffic on the two bridges serving the island.
The issue of a new crossing has been raised several times in the past.
The two existing bridges were built in the first half of the 19th Century but there are congestion issues with modern traffic and freight.
A Welsh government spokesperson said: "We have carried out investigations and consulted with the public over proposals for a new bridge crossing which would relieve congestion across Britannia Bridge.
"Later this year consultants will be appointed to develop these proposals.
"We are also reviewing the current speed limit on the approaches to the bridge in order to help ease congestion at peak times by allowing easier and safer access from the merging slip roads."
Both the Menai Suspension Bridge and Britannia Bridge were built in the first half of the 19th Century but there are congestion issues with modern traffic and freight.


British number one Johanna Konta progressed to the second round of the Rogers Cup with a straight-set win over American Shelby Rogers.

The 25-year-old, who won her first WTA Tour title on Sunday, won 6-4 6-2 in one hour 21 minutes in Montreal.
The world number 14 will play either Hungary's Timea Babos or American Vania King in the next round.
Britain's Naomi Broady will face Spain's world number three Garbine Muguruza in the second round later.
You can now add tennis alerts in the BBC Sport app - simply head to the menu and My Alerts section


Summer has only just begun but a record-breaking heatwave in the southwest corner of the US has sparked wildfires and triggered power outages.

There were 15 large blazes burning in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Utah on Wednesday.
And intermittent blackouts were reported in a number of southwest cities and towns as the spike in demand for electricity to run air-conditioning units overloads power systems.
But what are the more unlikely ways the blistering conditions are affecting the region?
Medics warn that touching normally innocuous items like steering wheels and doorknobs may leave second- and third-degree burns.
So motorists have been spotted driving with oven mittens in the triple-digit temperatures.
And some businesses have been covering their door handles with materials that alleviate the heat.
As well as burns, public health and emergency room personnel are prepared for extra cases of heat-related illnesses, including cramps, exhaustion and heat stroke.
Motorways are buckling, with giant cracks forming across four lanes of Highway 50 near the Californian city of West Sacramento on Sunday.
The pavement has since been repaired and the road re-opened but the scorching heat is suspected to be behind the damage, according to ABC local affiliate KGO-TV.
Residents further south in Arizona are sharing on social media how the climbing temperatures are affecting goods and other items.
Some candles melted in a car in Tucson and a vinyl record warped in a mailbox in Phoenix.
Wildlife attractions like Reid Park Zoo in Tucson, Arizona, are closing early so staff can "focus on animal care", a zoo spokeswoman said.
And at Phoenix Zoo, shade structures, cooling slabs, pools and "bloodsicles" - the animal kingdom's version of a Popsicle - have been introduced, said communications director Linda Hardwick.
Desert-dweller scorpions are also attempting to avoid baking in the sun by quenching their thirsts in backyard swimming pools south of Phoenix.
"He had his tail up and was just swimming around," Jen Lawson, a mother-of-two, tells Maricopa-based CBS affiliate KPHO-TV of the second scorpion she has found in her pool.
"Bark scorpions (unlike our other species) will drink freestanding water and could well be attracted to increased moisture levels around pools," University of Arizona entomologist Dr Dawn Gouge tells BBC News.
"During June we have extreme heat and no rain, even irrigation water dries up quickly so freestanding water is in short supply."
Some tourist hot spots are experiencing low visitor turnout, with Fox affiliate KSAZ-TV saying popular mountain hiking trails near Phoenix are unseasonably quiet.
But some tourists are following the sun, making the trek to California's Death Valley for an opportunity to snap a photo of themselves and a temperature gauge reading 130F (54C).
With the mercury reaching 119F (48C) in Phoenix, Arizona, on Tuesday, almost 50 flights to and from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport were cancelled because the weather was hotter than the operating temperatures of some of the smaller aircraft.
Too hot for planes to fly in Phoenix
Residents of southwest communities are trying to beat the sweltering heat, with a diner in Tucson, Arizona, offering free ice cream whenever the mercury exceeds 105F (40.5C).
"I have personally seen eggs cook on the sidewalk or cookies on a pan sitting on the dash of a car. Things like that," Jennifer Naples of Scottsdale, Arizona, tells BBC News. "This heat is unreal."


All photographs courtesy Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year.

The winning images from this year's Astronomy Photographer of the Year have been announced.
Chinese photographer Yu Jun's picture of Baily's beads won him both the Our Sun category and the overall award, Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2016.
Baily's beads come from the specks of light that appear around the Moon during a total eclipse of the Sun, a phenomenon first explained by 19th Century astronomer Francis Baily.
Yu Jun's picture is a multiple exposure, capturing the Sun during the stages of a total solar eclipse as seen from Luwuk, Indonesia.
"This is an eclipse as you have never quite seen it before," said one of the competition's judges, Dr Marek Kukula.
With more than 4,000 entries, Dr Kukula said this year they had been looking for out-of-the-ordinary images that pushed the boundaries of photography.
The runner-up in this section was also a composite image.
Taken by Catalin Beldea and processed by Alson Wong, Sun Flower Corona uses 12 images to convey the beauty of an eclipse.
Dr Kukula said this effect, could only have been revealed by this clever use of the camera.
The winner of the Aurorae category, Gyorgy Soponyai's Twilight Aurora, shows the aurora borealis in Svalbard, Norway.
The judges said there was tendency when photographing the aurora to emphasise deep colour, especially the greens, so this picture stood out because of its more subtle tones.
Runner-up Kolbein Svensson went further, shooting an aurora entirely in black and white.
The judges liked the way Nicolas Outters's M94: Deep Space Halo - taken through a telescope, using a 20 minute exposure - caught all the regions of the distant spiral galaxy, from the bright centre to the darker regions on the edge.
"The process was very difficult to do, and the challenge was to show all the small galaxies on the background," said Outters.
Ignacio Diaz Bobillo's Towards the Small Magellanic Cloud was also shot through a telescope, but with a five-hour exposure.
He stitched together a number of pictures to obtain the high-resolution image, revealing the stars and far away clusters in the dwarf galaxy.
His software counted more than 120,000 stars.
A detailed view of the lunar landscape by Jordi Delpeix Borrell won the Our Moon section.
Taken through a 14in (35cm) telescope, From Maurolycus to Moretus comprises a stack of images.
"The photographer focused in on an area of the Moon that has been hammered by impacts over billions of years, pockmarked by craters within craters," said Dr Kukula, to create a technically brilliant and dynamic image.
In contrast, the runner-up, Katherine Young's Rise Lunation, is made up of just one frame and has no post-processing.
It is the Moon just rising, seen through thick layers of the Earth's atmosphere, distorting the air with only the red part of the spectrum reaching the camera.
"As the Moon emerges, I relish the ripples and surprising shimmers," said Young.
Wing Ka Ho's City Lights shows the light trails of stars passing over Hong Kong's tightly packed streets.
At times, the light pollution makes it hard to see the stars.
Dani Caxete took Man on the Moon, using a telescope as his friend posed on Pena Munana, in Cadalso de los Vidrios, Spain.
Damian Peach said he had had near perfect conditions for viewing the rings of Saturn, in March of this year.
His picture, Serene Saturn, shows a variety of coloured bands within the atmosphere of the planet.
"It could almost be a Hubble Space Telescope picture, but it was taken by an amateur astronomer using commercially available equipment," said Dr Kukula.
Gerald Rhemann's Comet Catalina was taken over a period of nearly one hour and 20 minutes.
Ainsley Bennett got up early in October to capture his picture, Binary Haze.
"I knew the Moon, Venus, Mars and Jupiter were in close conjunction," he said.
"To my surprise, the mist added a new dimension by accentuating the brightness of the crescent moon and Venus making them look like glowing spheres.
"The resultant image looked like something from a science-fiction movie, with binary stars rising from the horizon of an unknown planet."
Mikko Silvola shot Silent Waves of the Sky: Noctilucent Clouds in Finland.
Yu Jun's Geminids over the Lamost telescope shows a night's worth of meteors over an observatory in China.
"This picture shows all these meteors, grains of dust burning up high the atmosphere," said Dr Kukula.
"Because the photographer has composited all the meteors from one night, you can see they all come from one spot in the sky."
Steve Brown's The Rainbow Star depicts Sirius, also known as the Dog Star, the brightest in our sky.
Brown filmed the star with the lens set slightly out of focus, intensifying its light as it passed through the Earth's atmosphere, which distorts and refracts it into a range of colours.
The runner-up, Pavel Pech's Perseus Molecular Cloud was taken in Sumava national Park, in the Czech Republic.
Brendan Devine, 15, stacked more than 60 frames to create his winning picture, Lunar Reversal, and then used software to invert the image, making it a negative.
The judges said this showed the Moon in a whole new light, allowing the texture to jump out.
And this willingness to play with images was something they had seen in this category more than others.


Roger Federer beat Richard Gasquet to seal Switzerland's first Davis Cup triumph, then dedicated the victory to his team-mates.

The 17-time Grand Slam champion beat France's Gasquet 6-4 6-2 6-2 to give the Swiss an unassailable 3-1 lead.
"This one is for the boys," said Federer, who was in tears at the end of the match.
"This is not for me, I have won enough. I am just happy we can give everyone in our country a historic moment."
Federer, 33, also paid tribute to compatriot Stan Wawrinka, who helped set up the victory in Lille by beating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga before partnering Federer to win the doubles.
Federer and Wawrinka were involved in a row at the ATP Tour Finals in London, which the world number two later described as "heat of the moment".
"Stan has put in so much effort over the years. He played an unbelievable weekend and that is what gave me the opportunity today," said Federer.
Federer, who lost his singles rubber to Gael Monfils on Friday, played an inspired match as he crushed Gasquet, who replaced Tsonga due to an arm injury.
In front of a passionate crowd of 27,448 - a world record for a competitive tennis match - Federer dropped only four points on his imperious serve in the opening set, which he sealed with a whipping forehand winner.
World number 26 Gasquet dropped serve in the first and seventh games of the second set, which Federer took without conceding a single break point.
He broke the Frenchman twice in the final set to serve for the match and claimed victory with a deft backhand drop shot - collapsing in tears onto the clay at the Stade Pierre-Mauroyto.
The Swiss win comes a week after Federer pulled out of the Tour Finals title match against Novak Djokovic at the O2 in London to protect a back injury.


German justice officials have said 30 former Auschwitz death camp guards should face prosecution.

The Baden-Wuerttemberg state justice ministry, heading the investigation, said 49 guards had been investigated, of whom 30 should be prosecuted.
The 30 are spread across Germany, and another seven are living abroad. They are said to be aged up to 97.
Auschwitz was the biggest Nazi death camp. More than 1.1 million people, most of them Jews, were murdered there.
The case of Ukrainian-born John Demjanjuk two years ago changed the legal situation concerning people who worked at the death camps.
Demjanjuk died last year while appealing against his five-year jail sentence for complicity in the murder of more than 28,000 Jews at the Sobibor camp in Nazi-occupied Poland.
A judge had ruled that even though there was no clear evidence that he had committed murder directly, his mere activities as a worker at the death camp facilitated mass murder.
Previously German courts only considered cases where Nazi suspects were accused of personally committing atrocities.
In July, the US-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish organisation which investigates Nazi war criminals, launched a poster campaign in Berlin seeking evidence on such fugitives from justice, with the slogan "Late - but not too late".
The justice agency in Ludwigsburg, Baden-Wuerttemberg, which heads German investigations into Nazi war crimes, said that of the 49 ex-guards from Auschwitz, in Nazi-occupied southern Poland, nine had died.
The agency said it was now handing over its findings to prosecutors in the German states.
Six of the cases will be handled by Baden-Wuerttemberg, seven by Bavaria, two by Saxony-Anhalt, four by North Rhine-Westphalia, four by Lower Saxony, two by Hesse and one each by Rhineland-Palatinate, Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Saxony and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
An official said the focus was now on bringing to justice the thousands of people who helped to manage the Nazi camps.
"The accused... are all former guards at the concentration camps Auschwitz-Birkenau and we take the view that this job - regardless of what they can be individually accused of - makes them guilty of complicity in murder," said chief prosecutor Kurt Schrimm.
In the next six months, the agency plans to re-examine the files on Nazis who served at Majdanek death camp in eastern Poland.
More than 7,000 SS personnel served at the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp complex in 1940-45, but only a few hundred were ever prosecuted.
The Nazis murdered most of their victims - Jews, Roma and Sinti and other persecuted groups - in gas chambers. Many others were shot, starved to death or killed in medical experiments.


A builder who spiked a colleague's hot chocolate with the drug speed has been given a two-year suspended sentence.

Kevin Johnstone, 41, of Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, was working at a building site when he slipped amphetamine into Tony Jones's drink.
Swansea Crown Court heard Mr Jones was taken to hospital complaining of heart pain after the stunt.
Johnstone previously pleaded guilty to unlawfully and maliciously causing amphetamines to be administered.
The court heard Johnstone thought it would be a "good joke" to watch his colleague react to the drugs.
Johnstone's defence barrister James Jenkins said Mr Jones's condition "was not life threatening at anytime" and the incident was a "joke that went wrong".
Sentencing Johnstone to 10 months in prison, suspended for two years, Recorder Elwen Evans QC, said he had shown "exceptionally stupid behaviour".
"This is the deliberate spiking of someone's hot drink at work," she said.
"Spiking their drink for some sort of entertainment.
"You thought it was a joke."


An algorithm created to identify recipes for food just from a photograph has been demonstrated by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The neural network was trained on a dataset of one million photos and one million recipes.
The trial model worked best on desserts and found smoothies and sushi more challenging, the researchers said.
The team has released an online trial although it is not a finished product.
When tested by the BBC, recipes that were generated based on a picture of spaghetti bolognese included "Italian tomato sauce" and "gunk on noodles".
A photo of a Black Forest gateau yielded "chocolate mocha cake" and "frozen grasshopper squares" - both of which looked similar to the image uploaded - and it successfully identified a hot dog.
"In computer vision, food is mostly neglected because we don't have the large-scale datasets needed to make predictions," said MIT researcher Yusuf Aytar.
"But seemingly useless photos on social media can actually provide valuable insight into health habits and dietary preferences."
The team will be presenting their paper at a conference in Honolulu later this month.
Previous models by other researchers have not used such a large data bank.
In the future the system could be developed to include how a food is prepared and could also be adapted to provide nutritional information, MIT said.
Artificial intelligence expert Calum Chace, author of The Economic Singularity, said the system was an interesting use of deep learning.
"It's an example of how machines can not only do things that humans cannot, but they perceive the world very differently from us," he told the BBC.
"Just as AlphaGo showed the world's best Go players whole new ways of looking at the game they had spent their lives mastering, this system will enable us to see the very food we eat in a different way."
In May 2017 Google's DeepMind AlphaGo artificial intelligence defeated the world's number one Go player Ke Jie, who was reduced to tears.
Following its success, AlphaGo was retired, with DeepMind founder Demis Hassabis saying it had achieved its objective.


A man who killed his mother and battered his father at their Ayrshire home is to be detained indefinitely at the State Hospital at Carstairs.

Graeme Morris, 38, assaulted Anne, 63, and Fred, 64, at their house in Troon on 5 October last year after mistakenly believing they harmed him as a child.
Mrs Morris died because of a serious heart condition she suffered from.
Morris admitted culpable homicide and assault. He will only be released with the approval of Scottish ministers.
Morris' detention was ordered by judge Lord Uist at the High Court in Edinburgh.
The court heard he had been diagnosed as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and would pose a danger to the public if not treated in conditions of high security.
At an earlier hearing, Lord Uist was told that Morris, a former student at Glasgow School of Art, was obsessed with the idea that he was a genius.
He was described as "strange and eccentric" said advocate depute Andrew Miller, prosecuting.
He also came to believe that, somehow, he had suffered as a child at his parents' hands.
Former girlfriend Emma Russell had been worried about his increasingly strange behaviour during the months leading up to the attack.
She contacted a doctor and Morris was put on a waiting list to see a psychiatrist.
On 5 October last year, Morris travelled from Brighton to Troon and turned up at his parents' bungalow without warning.
The couple were sitting in their conservatory when Morris began to shout abuse.
He grabbed his mother, who was on a couch, by the hair before punching his father to the floor.
As Mrs Morris tried to struggle to her feet, her son slapped her face.
Morris then continued battering his father as he lay on the ground, stripping him to his socks and kicking him.
When Mr Morris Snr arrived at a neighbours' house pleading for help they did not recognise him because his head was covered in blood.
Morris fled just before police arrived and took a train to Glasgow. The officers found his mother slumped on a sofa and apparently not breathing.
Morris was detained as he got off a train later that day at London's Euston Station, then brought back to Scotland for questioning.
He confessed to hitting his parents but added: "I didn't murder my mother. I didn't have any intention of murdering either of my parents or killing them or for them to die."
The court was told Mrs Morris died because of a heart condition, diagnosed in 1996 and known to her family.
Mr Miller said: "The effect of this condition was that any strenuous physical activity or stressful situations had the potential to be life-threatening."
Mr Morris spent seven days in hospital following the attack, receiving treatment for injuries including a fractured eye socket.


Hartlepool United midfielder Nicky Featherstone has signed a contract extension with the League Two club, although the terms are undisclosed.

Featherstone, 27, has made 78 appearances for Pools since signing as a free agent in October 2014.
"He's really taken to the way we're trying to play," manager Craig Hignett told the club website.
"If you look at how consistent he's been over the last two months it shows what a really good footballer he is."


An 18-year-old man who was stabbed to death in Slough was attacked by at least three men, police investigating his murder have said.

Wa-ays Dhaye, from Slough, died in hospital following the assault at the junction of Thurston Road and Waterbeach Road, Manor Park, on Monday.
Thames Valley Police said he was on his way home from Notting Hill Carnival in London when he was set upon.
Det Chief Insp Simon Steel described the attack as "senseless and violent".
A post-mortem examination on Tuesday confirmed he died from multiple stab wounds.
Det Chief Insp Steel said Mr Dhaye had been walking alone when he became involved in an altercation with a group of at least three men.
He said it was not yet known how it came about, but added: "His family and friends deserve to know what happened to him and to see those responsible brought to justice."
Mr Dhaye, who was Somalian, had travelled from London to Slough railway station at about 22:30 BST.
He is thought to have walked home via the crossroads between Stoke Poges Lane, Oatlands Drive and Elliman Avenue, then into Mildenhall Road before reaching Thurston Road.
Supt Simon Bowden said his death had "understandably had an impact on the community in Slough" and said officers were continuing to carry out house to house inquiries in the area.
The force said the death was not linked to an assault that occurred in Salt Hill Park on Friday.


Two defibrillators have been stolen from an Aberdeenshire village.

It is thought the community-owned equipment - used on people in cardiac arrest - was taken from Newtonhill between 26 September and 10 October.
One was next to a cash machine at Tesco in Newtonhill Road, and the other was close to the pharmacy at Old Mill Road.
Police Scotland said it was a "reckless act" that had the potential to cause death, through misuse or by the equipment not being available.
PC Marc Camus said: "I know how much time and effort went into the fund-raising to obtain these crucial life-saving devices."


A lorry has hit a low bridge in County Down, just a day after another driver sliced the roof of his vehicle on the same bridge.

The 19th Century stone bridge, known as The Cut, is in the centre of Banbridge in Newry Street, which was closed to traffic on Monday night.
The lorry was stuck under the bridge, and no injuries were reported.
Police issued a warning after a lorry crashed into the bridge on Sunday but drove on, unaware of the damage.
On the PSNI's Facebook page, officers said: "This vehicle found out the clearance height of The Cut in Banbridge yesterday. It then drove on to Portadown, not realising the damage done. Not the smartest move."
They advised van and lorry drivers to "know the height of your vehicle and always check the marked clearance height of bridges before passing under them for the first time".


Grand Slam-winning former Wales captain Ryan Jones has been named head of rugby participation by the Welsh Rugby Union.

The role was created in the wake of former head of rugby Josh Lewsey's departure.
Geraint John took Lewsey's title in January, 2016 and ex-Osprey and British and Irish Lions back-rower Jones will work alongside him.
"I will champion at board level the needs, concerns and direction of the community game in Wales," said Jones.
"I want to remain both visible and accessible and I would encourage those with a modern perspective on the game and a desire to innovate to get in touch and share their ideas."
Jones, 34, quit playing in August, 2015 having made 78 Test appearances, three of them for the Lions.
Hefinished his career at Bristol having started at Risca RFC before moving on to Newport, Bridgend and Celtic Warriors and then spending 10 years at Ospreys.
A shoulder injury forced Jones into retirement, bringing to a close a career that included three Six Nations Grand Slams.


Barbados is celebrating 50 years of full independence from Britain.

The east Caribbean island was once dominated by a hugely profitable sugar industry that exploited African slaves - whose descendants now make up the large majority of the population - and European indentured labour.
We asked Barbadians ("Bajans") who remember the days before independence to share their memories of that time, and explain how life has changed on the island five decades later.
A schoolboy of 14 at independence, Elridge Dixon has vivid memories of that day, 30 November 1966: "I watched the live TV broadcast of the Union Jack being lowered and the new Broken Trident flag of Barbados being raised in the pouring rain."
Mr Dixon went on to become a teacher, a field worker for a UN development project and, finally, a manager for a German pharmaceutical firm.
"We've made tremendous strides in the past 50 years, in education, healthcare and housing," he says. "The country has remained stable and holds elections that are free, fair and without incident."
Sandra Straker, a political activist and grandmother, went to watch the ceremonial raising of the new Barbados flag in person, at the British Army parade ground at Garrison Savannah (now a racecourse).
"I was a little girl and I will never forget that night," she says. "As we watched the flags change, an English sailor gave me his hat to wear - but I had to give it back or he would have been charged when he got back on his ship!"
Ms Straker has seen major social transformation: "There used to be whites-only areas. We as little black people could not walk there. That's all changed now."
But she also sees clouds on the horizon today: "In the past, fishermen gave free fish to those who had children but no money. Now we are richer, people don't care for their brothers and sisters like they used to."
Barbadians reacted to the prospect of independence with a mixture of excitement and concern about the future, recalls Lady Gwendolyn Brancker: "I felt a feeling of trepidation, not because I was against independence but because the event was so emotional."
She feels the practical effects of full independence have been minimal but predicts more constitutional change will come.
"I don't think anything has really changed - our culture and life in general have remained the same. Independence was a continuation of our lives and it mainly meant that we were no longer a colony of Britain.
"Nowadays, some people think we should go further and become a republic. I believe one day that will happen."
Nita Trottman has worked in her rum shop (the Barbadian equivalent of an English local pub) for the whole of her adult life.
Her parents opened the shop - named "Trotties" - in Watts Village in St George parish in 1952, and Nita began work there after leaving school around the time of independence.
For her, full Barbadian self-rule was a final release from routine inconveniences.
"In those days, if you got a money order from England, you had to go to a justice of the peace and get him to sign the back of it before you could get the money. Now we have ID cards for things like that."
While things have not always gone well since independence - the global financial crash in 2008 heavily affected the tourism-dependent island - she is adamant that self-determination has brought benefits.
"Things are better now. We've had hard times but everyone's got enough to eat."
At the time of independence, Ervin Ford was serving as a 31-year-old merchant seaman, helping deliver sugar cane and other products from Barbados to islands around the Caribbean.
At home in Wildey, St Michael, he listened to the independence ceremony on the radio.
"Only richer people had TVs. Black people were nothing in Barbados," he remembers.
He has since witnessed the country's main industry move from sugar cane production to tourism.
"Visitors from England and America have helped build tourism here," he says. "This country is blessed by the Lord - it's a beautiful country, the best in the Caribbean."
Interviews by Adrian Dalingwater and Andree Massiah.


Hartlepool ended a miserable run of form with a 3-2 win over Morecambe in League Two.

Without a win or a goal since 22 November, Hartlepool established control early on and bagged three goals in 14 first-half minutes.
They ended the drought after 10 minutes when Padraig Amond took a touch, turned and looped a volley over goalkeeper Barry Roche, who was slow to react as the ball sailed over him.
It only took four minutes for a second to arrive as Jake Carroll crossed from deep and defender Ryan Edwards handled the ball. Hartlepool missed a penalty last time out, but Billy Paynter made no mistake on this occasion as he sent Roche the wrong way.
A third goal for the home side came after 24 minutes. Michael Woods, whose inclusion was one of four line-up changes, was playing behind the front two and released a delightful pass for Nicky Featherstone to get in behind the defence. Featherstone showed great composure to finish.
In first-half injury time, the Shrimps should have got one back but Rhys Turner managed to clip his finish against the bar from eight yards.
They did score after 52 minutes when Hartlepool failed to clear from the back and a low shot from Andrew Fleming was deflected high into the net.
Morecambe scrambled a second in injury time but it came too late to deny the hosts.
Report supplied by the Press Association
Match ends, Hartlepool United 3, Morecambe 2.
Second Half ends, Hartlepool United 3, Morecambe 2.
Rhys Oates (Hartlepool United) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by Lee Molyneux (Morecambe).
Goal!  Hartlepool United 3, Morecambe 2. Paul Mullin (Morecambe) right footed shot from very close range to the top right corner.
Corner,  Morecambe. Conceded by Lewis Alessandra.
Foul by Liam Donnelly (Hartlepool United).
Michael Rose (Morecambe) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Attempt missed. Aaron McGowan (Morecambe) right footed shot from the right side of the box misses to the right.
Attempt missed. Josh Laurent (Hartlepool United) right footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the right.
Delay in match Aristote Nsiala (Hartlepool United) because of an injury.
Attempt missed. Andrew Fleming (Morecambe) header from very close range is just a bit too high.
Foul by Josh Laurent (Hartlepool United).
Paul Mullin (Morecambe) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Andrew Fleming (Morecambe).
Lewis Hawkins (Hartlepool United) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Attempt blocked. Paul Mullin (Morecambe) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
Corner,  Morecambe. Conceded by Jake Carroll.
Substitution, Hartlepool United. Josh Laurent replaces Michael Woods.
Substitution, Morecambe. Aaron Wildig replaces Rhys Turner.
Substitution, Hartlepool United. Rhys Oates replaces Nicky Deverdics.
Attempt missed. Aristote Nsiala (Hartlepool United) header from the centre of the box misses to the left.
Corner,  Hartlepool United. Conceded by Michael Rose.
Aaron McGowan (Morecambe) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Nicky Deverdics (Hartlepool United).
Attempt missed. Ryan Edwards (Morecambe) header from the centre of the box is too high.
Corner,  Morecambe. Conceded by Liam Donnelly.
Substitution, Morecambe. Lee Molyneux replaces James Jennings because of an injury.
Andrew Fleming (Morecambe) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Michael Woods (Hartlepool United).
Delay in match James Jennings (Morecambe) because of an injury.
Aristote Nsiala (Hartlepool United) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Andrew Fleming (Morecambe) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Aristote Nsiala (Hartlepool United).
Substitution, Hartlepool United. Lewis Alessandra replaces Billy Paynter.
Paul Mullin (Morecambe) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Foul by Liam Donnelly (Hartlepool United).
Goal!  Hartlepool United 3, Morecambe 1. Andrew Fleming (Morecambe) right footed shot from the centre of the box to the top right corner.
Corner,  Morecambe. Conceded by Aristote Nsiala.
Aaron McGowan (Morecambe) wins a free kick in the attacking half.


Northern Irishman Johnny McKinstry has been named as the new coach of the Rwanda national football team.

The 29-year-old was one of four candidates on a shortlist for the job.
McKinstry previously led Sierra Leone into the top 50 of the Fifa world rankings as the youngest manager in international football.
His new appointment, as the successor to Englishman Stephen Constantine, will see him also take charge of the Under-23 and Under-20 teams.
He will now lead Rwanda in their qualification games for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations, the 2018 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics.
The other coaches in the running for the job were former Chelsea assistant Jose Morais, Turk Engin Frat and German Hans Michael Weiss.
Constantine quit the post in January to take over as manager of the India national side.
McKinstry was appointed by the Leone Stars at the age of 27 and lost only one of his first six matches.
But following defeats by Ivory Coast and DR Congo in the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, he was sacked - only six months after he had been given the job on a permanent basis.


Britain's Dom Inglot won the seventh ATP doubles title of his career as he successfully teamed up with Mate Pavic of Croatia in Morocco.

The pair beat Spanish second seeds Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez 6-4 2-6 11-9 in the final of the Grand Prix Hassan II in Marrakech.
Inglot, 31, has now won at least one title each year since 2012.
Pavic, 23, is Inglot's third ATP doubles partner of 2017 after Florian Mergea and Robin Haase.
The new pairing also knocked out third seeds Rohan Bopanna and Marcin Matkowski in the second round of the clay-court event.


UK retail sales volumes rose strongly in April despite lower spring clothing sales due to the cold weather, official figures show.

Sales volumes were 1.3% higher in the month compared with March.
They were also 4.3% higher than a year earlier, the Office For National Statistics (ONS) said.
The ONS revised March's retail sales figures, showing retail sales fell by just 0.5% rather than 1.3%, as first estimated.
"Clothing stores remain the main drag on growth in the retail sector, with sales hampered by unseasonal weather. However... sales increased in April compared with March as lower prices boosted sales," said ONS statistician Melanie Richard.
Colder than usual weather had also dented spending in March, hurting demand for spring and summer clothes, according to the ONS and surveys from the British Retail Consortium and the CBI.
The latest ONS figures showed total average store prices in April were 2.8% lower than a year earlier, dragged down by a 7.3% drop in fuel prices. Food store prices fell 2.3% amid the continuing supermarket price war.
However, the total amount spent in April increased by 2.1% to Â£28.1bn compared with the year before.
Keith Richardson, of Lloyds Bank commercial banking, said a rush to complete property deals before a stamp duty rise came into effect in April had helped to boost demand for household goods and furniture.
Vicky Redwood, chief economist at Capital Economics, said that consumer confidence did not seem to have been adversely affected by the UK's upcoming referendum on EU membership.
"Indeed, consumer spending should prevent the economy from slowing too much this quarter, even if referendum uncertainty has a bigger impact on business confidence and investment," she said.
The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) said the rise in April's retail sales was welcome, but highlighted imbalances in the UK economy.
"After the disappointing decline in March, the strong retail sales recovery in April supports our view that in spite of major headwinds the UK economy continues to grow, albeit at a slowing pace," said David Kern, BCC chief economist.
"However, the contrast between buoyant retail sales and the problems facing other sectors such as manufacturing highlights the unbalanced nature of Britain's recovery."
The BCC called for "a more balanced economic structure with a stronger focus on exports, investment and manufacturing".
The stronger-than-expected retail sales figures pushed up the value of the pound. Sterling rose against the euro by 0.3% to â‚¬1.3053, and climbed 0.2% against the dollar to $1.4625.


Millwall returned to the League One play-off places with a home win over Peterborough after Lee Gregory redeemed himself from the penalty spot.

Playing their game in hand on Southend, Millwall climbed up to sixth as the striker won and scored a penalty during the second half.
Gregory had missed two late spot-kicks in Saturday's 0-0 draw at Oldham, effectively costing Millwall two points in their pursuit of promotion. His response not only secured the two further points he may have felt he owed Millwall, but came as victory began to look beyond their reach.
The hosts started with some promise, when in the opening minutes striker Harry Smith's shot was routinely saved by Luke McGee and then when Shaun Williams struck just over the crossbar.
It was then that Peterborough began to respond. Marcus Maddison tested Millwall goalkeeper Tom King with a 25-yard free-kick, and then the hosts prematurely began to tire.
Playing their eighth fixture in February, Neil Harris' team - who have not conceded a goal since January 21 - also looked short of inspiration until Gregory's show of determination.
The 28-year-old won possession in the 54th minute, broke down the left wing on the counter-attack, and carried the ball into the penalty area until being brought down by Anthony Grant.
A one-time strike partner of Jamie Vardy at Halifax, Gregory then showed admirable belief to again take responsibility, this time beating the diving McGee by finishing into the bottom left corner.
Millwall's defence remained resilient thereafter, securing the result that leaves Peterborough five points behind the top six.
Report supplied by the Press Association.
Match ends, Millwall 1, Peterborough United 0.
Second Half ends, Millwall 1, Peterborough United 0.
Shaun Williams (Millwall) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Ryan Tafazolli (Peterborough United).
Bradden Inman (Peterborough United) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Fred Onyedinma (Millwall) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Bradden Inman (Peterborough United).
Substitution, Millwall. Shaun Hutchinson replaces Ben Thompson.
Corner,  Peterborough United. Conceded by Tony Craig.
Shaun Cummings (Millwall) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Michael Bostwick (Peterborough United).
Marcus Maddison (Peterborough United) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Shaun Williams (Millwall) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Marcus Maddison (Peterborough United).
Ben Thompson (Millwall) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by Marcus Maddison (Peterborough United).
Substitution, Millwall. Callum Butcher replaces Lee Gregory.
Substitution, Peterborough United. Lee Angol replaces Michael Smith.
Attempt missed. Craig Mackail-Smith (Peterborough United) right footed shot from the centre of the box misses to the left.
Attempt blocked. Marcus Maddison (Peterborough United) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
Corner,  Millwall. Conceded by Michael Smith.
Attempt saved. Jake Cooper (Millwall) header from a difficult angle on the left is saved in the top left corner.
Corner,  Millwall. Conceded by Ryan Tafazolli.
Attempt blocked. Chris Forrester (Peterborough United) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
Attempt saved. Ben Thompson (Millwall) left footed shot from outside the box is saved in the centre of the goal.
Tony Craig (Millwall) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Foul by Marcus Maddison (Peterborough United).
Attempt saved. Craig Mackail-Smith (Peterborough United) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the centre of the goal.
Corner,  Millwall. Conceded by Andrew Hughes.
Corner,  Millwall. Conceded by Luke McGee.
Corner,  Peterborough United. Conceded by Shaun Cummings.
Substitution, Peterborough United. Chris Forrester replaces Anthony Grant.
Shane Ferguson (Millwall) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Foul by Shane Ferguson (Millwall).
Bradden Inman (Peterborough United) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Attempt missed. Lee Gregory (Millwall) header from the centre of the box is high and wide to the right.
Attempt saved. Aiden O'Brien (Millwall) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom left corner.
Jake Cooper (Millwall) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Bradden Inman (Peterborough United).
Substitution, Peterborough United. Craig Mackail-Smith replaces Leonardo Da Silva Lopes.


The Ulster Unionist leader has accused those pushing for special status for Northern Ireland after Brexit of trying to create a "united Ireland by the back door".

Robin Swann said such a move would lead to the break-up of the United Kingdom and would set Northern Ireland "adrift" outside the union with Great Britain.
He also dismissed nationalists calls for an Irish border poll as "nonsense".
Mr Swann was speaking at the launch of his party's manifesto in Templepatrick.
The eight-page document set out the party's key priorities for the Westminster election and the Brexit negotiations.
He said: "Special status for Northern Ireland brings with it all sorts of connotations which effectively leaves Northern Ireland outside the United Kingdom rather than inside."
Sinn FÃ©in, the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) and Alliance have all called for special status for Northern Ireland post-Brexit.
In response, the Ulster Unionist leader said: "Those who promote "special status" are calling for the break-up of the United Kingdom.
"It is an attempt by some to create a united Ireland by the back door."
The Ulster Unionist leader also warned against moving the border to the "middle of the Irish sea".
"There can be no passport checks for citizens of Northern Ireland arriving in Cairnryan or Heathrow," he added.
On the prospect of a border poll, Mr Swann said such a move would only serve to "sectarianise" every election in Northern Ireland.
"One of the threats I see from a border poll is not the first border poll," he said.
"It is the fact that, according to the Belfast Agreement, we get into a seven-year cycle - with a border poll every seven years."
He also attacked Sinn FÃ©in - which is targeting the Ulster Unionist seat in Fermanagh and South Tyrone - for taking their expenses but not their seats at Westminster.
"An abstentionist MP is no MP at all, every seat not taken weakens Northern Ireland's influence at Westminster," he said.
On the stalemate at Stormont, the UUP manifesto sets out five key reforms for restoring the institutions.
They include:
Mr Swann also warned that public confidence in the institutions had been badly damaged by recent scandals such as those involving the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme, Red Sky and the Irish National Asset Management Agency (Nama).
"It is outrageous that Northern Ireland has been left drifting without a government now for five months," Mr Swann said.
He added the impact on public services was starting to bite.
"While others have been preaching about respect and supposedly standing up to the Tories, the reality is that the crisis in public services has been deepening.
"Only last week, the latest health waiting times were published which revealed over a quarter of a million outpatients waiting for an appointment."
The Ulster Unionists are fielding 14 candidates in the general election and the party is facing a battle to retain its two seats in Fermanagh and South Tyrone and South Antrim.


One of the men jailed for life for murdering Glasgow teenager Kriss Donald has been given another jail term for lying in a bid to free an accomplice.

Daanish Zahid, 31, gave evidence during Imran Shahid's 2011 appeal against his conviction for the racially-motivated murder of the 15-year-old in 2004.
Judges threw out Shahid's appeal after concluding Zahid had lied.
Zahid was jailed for another six years after he admitted attempting to defeat the ends of justice.
He is already serving a minimum of 17 years after being found guilty of abducting and murdering the schoolboy.
The additional sentence, which will begin when the minimum term ends, means it could be 2027 before he is freed.
Three other men - Imran Shahid, his brother Zeeshan Shahid and Faisal Mushtaq - were also jailed for life for the murder after being convicted in 2006.
Shahid, who was the ringleader of the gang, was ordered to serve a minimum of 25 years - his brother received a minimum of 23 years and Mushtaq 22 years.
Mushtaq and Zeeshan Shahid abandoned their plans to appeal against their minimum jail terms in 2009.
Imran Shahid's appeal was eventually thrown out in 2011 despite Zahid giving evidence on his behalf.
During that case, Zahid insisted Shahid was "innocent" and that another Glasgow-based Asian gang was behind the murder.
Zahid claimed he had been threatened into silence and then revealed a string of texts supposedly naming the "real killers".
But appeal judges criticised the evidence - while also throwing out Shahid's appeal - before ordering an investigation into the lies.
It lead to Zahid being jailed again.
As Zahid was jailed again, Kriss Donald's mother Angela screamed "yes" and shouted: "Hope you die in jail".


Four multi-national stores have agreed to take up shop space in a £23.4m development at the former Rhyl funfair site.

The Range, Poundworld, Farmfoods and Greggs are to move into Marina Quay.
Talks are continuing with other firms to take up space in the second part of the project which has yet to get under way, developer Scarborough International Properties has said.
The funfair, which opened in the 1890s, was bulldozed in 2007.
The first phase of the development has been completed and construction on the next phase is due to start this winter.
Development director Paul Kelly said: "Completion of this first phase of Marina Quay is a significant event not just for Marina Quay, but for the town of Rhyl as a whole.
"This new retail and leisure development will play an important role in attracting further food and leisure operators, establishing Rhyl as a key shopping destination in Wales."
The developer believes in the region of 500 jobs could be created when the project is complete.


A 53-year-old man whose decomposing body was found wrapped in plastic in a woodland beauty spot in north-east London had been shot dead.

Officers named the murder victim as Hidir Aksakal, who was known as Cetin.
His remains were found at Hollow Ponds in Epping Forest on 9 September, but police said his body may have been there for several weeks.
Officers said Mr Aksakal had a "criminal history" which they were exploring as one line of inquiry.
The partially buried body was found by a passer-by in undergrowth off Whipps Cross Road in Leytonstone, in a wooded area close to Whipps Cross University Hospital.
A post-mortem examination carried out at Walthamstow Mortuary on 11 September gave Mr Aksakal's cause of death as gunshot wounds.
Mr Aksakal, a Turkish national, who lived in Margate, Kent, was also known as Musa Yakut, but was more commonly known by his nickname Boxer Cetin.
His last known sighting was in the early hours of 17 August in Green Lanes, north London.
Appealing for witnesses, Det Ch Insp Jamie Piscopo said: "We are building a picture of Cetin's movements up to that evening and someone may have vital information.
"We are working on the basis that Cetin was murdered shortly after the last sighting of him.
"Cetin did have a criminal history, including links to other criminals, and as part of our investigation we are exploring this."


Afghan President Ashraf Ghani says there is "no evidence" Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour is dead, after reports of an internal gunfight.

Mr Ghani was speaking after the Taliban released an audio tape said to be from Mullah Mansour in which he calls reports of the firefight "baseless".
It was said to have taken place near the Pakistani city of Quetta last week.
Mansour was declared leader in July after the Taliban confirmed that Mullah Omar had died in 2013.
Mansour's appointment then prompted splits in the Taliban.
Read more
Mr Ghani told a press conference on Monday:  "There is no evidence that Mansour has been killed."
He added: "The incident that occurred should be carefully analysed."
He was referring to a gunfight that was said to have taken place on the outskirts of the western city of Quetta last Tuesday.
Some reports said Mansour had been seriously hurt, others that he had died, along with four Taliban gunmen.
Late on Saturday, the Taliban released the audio tape in which the speaker refers to the "rumour that fighting happened among the Taliban at a time when a meeting was in progress".
"The rumour says I was injured during the clash and later some media outlets reported that I died. Brothers, this report is not true, there is no doubt that it is enemy propaganda," the speaker says.
The voice resembled that in previous recordings issued by Mansour but there has still been speculation about its authenticity.
In the 17-minute message he says he has not seen the place where the fight was said to have taken place "for years", adding: "I am safe and my colleagues are safe. I am among my colleagues."
The speaker insists the Taliban will continue to fight to establish an "Islamic government" in Afghanistan and resist peace overtures.
Since August Mansour has overseen a series of battlefield victories, including briefly capturing the northern Afghan city of Kunduz.
But the movement has split into openly warring factions.
A number of senior Taliban commanders refused to pledge allegiance to Mansour and a faction opposed to him was set up last month under Mullah Mohammad Rasool.


Three Black Country men have been charged with stealing a bus from a depot which led to a police chase.

The bus was reported stolen in Coseley at about 21:40 BST on Wednesday and spotted near Albrighton at 02:40 on Thursday.
Following a police pursuit, the bus was stopped just after 03:00.
Peter Loveland, 39, Thomas Tibbs, 20, and John Burton, 38, were charged with aggravated vehicle taking and are due before Sandwell magistrates on Friday.
More on this and other Birmingham and Black Country stories
Mr Burton of Broom Road in Dudley, also faces charges of driving while disqualified and using a vehicle without third party insurance.
Mr Loveland is from Dale Close in Tipton and Mr Tibbs is from Clinic Drive in Lye.