A slightly different version that keeps root node:

use strict;
use XML::Simple;
use Data::Dumper;

my $xs = new XML::Simple("KeepRoot" => 1);
my $xml = $xs->XMLin("policies.xml", forcearray => 1, keyattr => ['pol
+icies']);

my $new = {
                       'name' => "1",
                       'link_name' => "2",
                       'description' => "3",
                       'date' => "4"
            };

# Add to hash
print Dumper($xml);
$xml->{'policies'}->[0]->{'added'} = $new;
print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";

# Sort hash
#@{ $xml->{'policies'} } = sort { "\L$a->{name}" cmp "\L$b->{name}"} @
+{ $xml->{'policies'} };
print Dumper($xml);
$xs->XMLout($xml, outputfile => "policies1.xml", attrindent => 1);
[download]

Output:

<policies>
  <New name="Test3"
       date="28-8-104"
       description="asdf"
       link_name="Test3.doc" />
  <Newer name="Whatever"
         date="28-8-104"
         description="asdf"
         link_name="Whatever.doc" />
  <added name="1"
         date="4"
         description="3"
         link_name="2" />
  <policies2 name="General Admit to GPRMC"
             catagory="General"
             description=""
             link_name="General Admit to GPRMC.doc" />
</policies>
[download]