ELDERLY people in private care homes are treated shamefully and need more protection, according to an influential group of MPs and peers.

The Joint Select Committee on Human Rights says elderly people are left lying in their own urine or excrement, suffer malnutrition and are abused by care home staff.

Andrew Dismore, the committee chairman, said a "complete change of culture" was needed.

The devastating verdict comes after The Northern Echo revealed evidence of the abuse of elderly people in a privately-run care home in the North-East.

In a three-minute mobile phone video, a woman appears to try to incite a confrontation between residents, goading a man and a woman into shouting foul-mouthed abuse at each other.

Durham County Council has launched an investigation into the incident.

The video has provoked widespread anger, with one contributor to The Northern Echo website saying: "I think this is absolutely disgusting."

Another asked: "How can people do this to the elderly?"

Mr Dismore said: "The case is a very serious one."

His committee found more than a fifth of care homes are not providing even the minimum standards of care required.

It is demanding the Government pass new laws to hold businesses and voluntary groups responsible for the human rights of residents in their homes.

The Human Rights Act only covers council-run homes - about ten per cent of the total.

Mr Dismore said: "Neglect and ill treatment of the elderly is a severe abuse of human rights. It is a serious betrayal of trust by the very people upon whom older people depend for care."

The report was welcomed by charities working for the elderly.

Kate Jopling, from Help the Aged, said: "This influential group of Parliamentarians has lifted the lid on the shameful treatment of our older citizens by health and care services.

"Far from tending to the needs of the most vulnerable, too often these services fail to even respect older people's most basic human rights."

The Government is due to respond to the report in autumn.