UK retail sector lost £11.3bn to payments fraud last year, figures suggest

NOT SHOP LIFTING

Josie Clarke, PA Consumer Affairs Correspondent
Sun, 7 April 2024 


More than a third of UK businesses (35%) fell victim to fraudulent activity, cyber attacks or data leaks over the last 12 months, up 37% on 2022, according to the report for financial technology platform Adyen by the Centre for Economic Business and Research (Cebr).

Retail businesses lost an average of £1,394,518 each to fraudulent activity over the last 12 months, the report said.

Luxury fashion retailers lost an average of £2.8 million, clothing and accessory businesses £2.6 million and health and beauty brands £1.1 million each.

In an effort to improve online sales, many retailers have opted for more lenient online returns policies.

However, many now battle high rates of chargeback fraud. If a retailer receives a fraud-related chargeback for a transaction, it means that the cardholder claims they did not authorise or participate in the transaction.

Fraud is also impacting shoppers, with 33% of UK consumers becoming a victim of payments fraud over the past year, up from 23% in 2022, a survey found.

Payment fraud is defined as a fraudster stealing someone’s credit or debit card number, or checking account data, and using that payment information to make an unauthorised purchase.

Consumers who fell victim to payments fraud in 2023 lost an average £311.09, an increase of 16% on the year before.

Adyen chief operating officer Roelant Prins said: “Fraud is a pervasive challenge for retailers, and today’s findings demonstrate how it can significantly impact profits.

“Criminals are deploying more sophisticated methods when they attack businesses, including the application of AI, and it’s therefore critical to invest in the right defence mechanisms to protect the company and customers.

“With technology in place, such as machine learning tools, retailers should be able to recognise genuine customers and spot fraudulent activity across their sales channels.”

Censuswide polled 2,002 consumers in the UK from January 15-2

‘Empowering’ brand Sweaty Betty among the UK's biggest gender pay gaps

Daniel O'Boyle
Sun, 7 April 2024

The business, which says it is “on a mission to empower all women", pays female staff 43p for every £1 earned by men (Sweaty Betty)

Sweaty Betty - the female-focused London athleisurewear brand that says it is “on a mission to empower all women" - has one of the biggest gender pay gaps of any company of its size in the UK, the Standard can reveal.

The figures show Sweaty Betty has the 90th-largest median gender pay gap out of more than 10,000 firms in the Government database, or the 11th-largest gap of any company with more than 1,000 employees.

The median woman at the company makes 46.2p for every pound made by men there, or 53.8% less. That puts Sweaty Betty in the bottom 0.4% of companies of its size for pay equality.

Looking at the mean instead of median, there were still only 21 companies with a larger gender pay gap than Sweaty Betty — and 13 of them were football clubs. Sweaty Betty’s mean pay gap was 56.4%.

Official figures show that lower-paid roles at the company are almost entirely held by women. Among the top quarter of jobs by pay at Sweaty Betty, most are also held by women, but this group includes a much higher share of men than its lower-paid roles.

Sweaty Betty’s large gender pay gap does not appear to be an inevitable consequence of the sector it’s in. Rival athleisurewear brand Lululemon, its most direct competitor, had a median gender pay gap of just 6%. Lululemon’s mean gap was closer though, at 38%.

None of the other companies of similar size with larger gender pay gaps operated in the fashion or retail sectors.

In figures published just two years ago, the gender pay gap at the brand was lower than the UK average, at just 10p per pound.

However, it rocketed in last year’s figures and continued to climb in the ones published this year. The rocketing pay gap came in the first year that the data covered Sweaty Betty’s takeover by US fashion firm Wolverine Worldwide, who bought the brand from its founders, Tamara and Simon Hill-Norton, for £300 million.

According to the Sweaty Betty website, the brand - which was founded in Notting Hill in 1998 - is “on a mission to empower all women through fitness and beyond”.

“This means finding more sustainable ways of working, making sure inclusivity is at the heart of everything we do, and investing in our community through the Sweaty Betty Foundation,” the website continues.

It is known for championing body positivity. Last month it launched a new campaign and brand goals that are “designed to lift women up”.

Sweaty Betty and Wolverine Worldwide did not respond to a request for comment.

Banker bonus gap widens as men awarded more variable pay than women at top financial firms


Simon Hunt
Fri, 5 April 2024 

(Victoria Jones/PA) (PA Wire)

The gender pay gap has worsened across many of the City’s biggest banks in signs that men are reaping an increasingly large share of bonus pools, new figures reveal today.

The difference in average bonuses between men and women has widened in 11 out of 18 banks, according to government gender pay data analysed by the Standard.

Men now get more than 10 times the median bonuses that women do at NatWest, a deterioration on last year, while at Lloyds, the median bonus pay gap has widened by 21 percentage points such that women now earn 59% less than men. At Barclays, the bonus gap has worsened to 61%, and at HSBC it contracted slightly to 74% but remains among the highest.

Almost all US investment banks have seen their bonus pay gap worsen in the UK compared with last year — while at Goldman Sachs it widened to its worst in six years.

Supermarket-owned banks have also fared poorly, with the median bonus gap at Sainsbury’s Bank increasing by 25 percentage points to 71%, and Tesco Bank reversing a zero bonus gap last year to a 50% differential this year.

The EU’s bonus cap rule — which restricts the size of banker bonuses as a proportion of fixed pay — was axed in the UK at the end of October last year, after the move was announced by Kwasi Kwarteng during his short stint as Chancellor in 2022. That suggests men are disproportionately benefiting from the lifting of restrictions and the gender gap in bonuses could get even larger next year.

City Comment: Scrapping the bonus cap has only widened the City’s gender inequality

By contrast, London’s biggest fintechs and digital banks showed signs of significant improvement. The bonus pay gap at Monzo was zero for the second consecutive year, while at Revolut it was reduced from 49% to zero. At Starling, the first British bank to have been founded by a woman, the bonus pay gap skewed slightly in favour of women.

Revolut said its improvement was driven by an increased representation of women in the highest pay quartiles. That was the result of a new promotion policy, which elevated women’s representation from 35% in 2022 to 44% in the 2023 promotion cohort.

Janine Hirt, CEO of Innovate Finance, said: “It is fantastic to see that fintechs are leading the charge in closing the gender pay gap. This commitment to equality within their own organisations is directly in line with their drive to foster a financial services sector that is more inclusive and democratic with diverse customers and consumers at its heart.

“By championing gender parity, fintechs set a powerful example for the broader financial services sector about how greater diversity is key to innovation, progress and success.”

Councils failing to deal with equal pay claims could lead to disaster – union


Ryan McDougall, PA Scotland
Fri, 5 April 2024 

The First Minister has been warned that local councils’ refusal to engage with equal pay claims could have “disastrous” consequences for Scottish communities.

GMB Scotland has called on Humza Yousaf to support the creation of a new specialist body to decide on such claims across the country and to enforce awards.

The union, which represents low-paid women workers across the public sector, said retrospective claims for hundreds of millions of pounds could bankrupt local authorities.

The warning came as Falkirk council home care workers, who are mostly women on low wages, begin four days of strikes on Friday.


They will also strike next Wednesday alongside Renfrewshire and West Dunbartonshire council care staff.

The strikes come after the workers rejected internal reviews of their pay grade, stating their role and responsibilities have increased significantly since last being assessed.

GMB Scotland secretary, Louise Gilmour, wrote to Mr Yousaf, asking for a new specialist body to decide on equal pay claims across the country, stating local authorities are not doing so.

She said: “Scotland’s councils are approaching equal pay claims like the Titanic approaching the iceberg.

GMB Scotland Secretary Louise Gilmour (Andy Cawley/PA)

“Councillors have their heads in the sand and executives have their fingers in their ears but these equal pay claims will come, will be won, and will need to be settled.

“It is understandable that our councils are refusing to acknowledge the reality because the reality is unthinkable and the scale of these claims unimaginable for local authorities already being forced to cut services.

“Women who have been underpaid for far too long will still win these claims, however, and, unless that process is properly managed now, the impact on our councils and the communities they serve could be disastrous.”

Many of the women striking have said their roles and responsibilities have been undervalued for decades when compared to their male colleagues.

They have argued a higher pay grade could be retrospectively applied, allowing them to claim up to five years’ back pay.

GMB has estimated this could cost councils hundreds of millions of pounds in compensation.

GMB Scotland already has equal pay campaigns underway in Dundee, Perth and Kinross, Angus, Fife and Moray councils, with a process expected to lead to pay reviews in more than a dozen other local authorities across Scotland.

Glasgow City Council has sold multiple assets, including Kelvingrove Art Gallery and the City Chambers, to settle an initial £770 million equal pay bill.

Ms Gilmour warned against any suggestion that low-paid women are somehow responsible for the possible financial emergency.

She said: “Blaming equal pay claims instead of the systematic pay discrimination that has prevailed in our councils for generations is as dishonest as it is disgraceful.

“It is an attempt at emotional blackmail to persuade women workers that they are somehow being greedy and risking men’s jobs by simply asking for what they are due and have been due for years and years.

“The financial crisis facing Scotland’s local councils is not about women, it is about fairness and has been too long coming.

“Equal pay is not going away. It is incumbent on trade unions and politicians of all parties to learn the mistakes of the past so they are never repeated.”

A spokesperson for Falkirk Health and Social Care Partnership said: “We are advising those receiving care, and their families, that our care and support at home service will operate on a reduced capacity during any industrial action by GMB Scotland.

“We are in the process of communicating directly with people supported by our service to advise of likely disruption to their care.

“Falkirk Council is committed to upholding equal pay and continues to engage with GMB. We will seek to minimise disruption for those in need of our care and support at home services”.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Councils are responsible for meeting their legal obligations to their employees, including on equal pay.

“In the face of a profoundly challenging financial situation, the Scottish Government is making available record funding of more than £14 billion to councils in 2024-25 – a real-terms increase of 2.5% compared with the previous year”.

A Renfrewshire Council spokesperson said: “We are actively engaged in discussions with trade unions to seek a resolution to the ongoing dispute and remain committed to ensuring the safety and wellbeing of all of our service users.”

West Dunbartonshire Council has been contacted for comment.

RBC fires finance chief over secret relationship with employee who enjoyed promotions and pay rises


Lars Mucklejohn
Sun, 7 April 2024 

Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) headquarters in the financial district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 

Photographer: Cole Burston/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Royal Bank of Canada, the country’s largest bank, has fired its chief financial officer after finding that she was in a secret personal relationship with another employee who received promotions and pay rises as a result.

The Toronto-based bank said on Friday that Nadine Ahn’s employment was “terminated”, alongside the unnamed employee, after it discovered evidence that she violated RBC’s code of conduct.

The bank said it launched an internal review and hired outside legal counsel after becoming aware of allegations involving Ahn, finding that she had an “undisclosed close personal relationship with another employee which led to preferential treatment of the employee including promotion and compensation increases”.

Ahn had worked for the bank for more than two decades, becoming its CFO in November 2021. RBC has appointed Katherine Gibson, another 20-year company veteran, as its interim finance chief.

RBC added that the investigation found no evidence of misconduct by Ahn or the other employee in regards to its financial statements, strategy, or financial and business performance.

In the case that one of its top executives is terminated for cause, RBC will not pay severance and the employee could be denied other bonus awards, according to the bank’s annual proxy circular.

City A.M. could not reach Ahn for comment.

The news comes after several high-profile corporate relationship scandals in recent times, mostly involving male executives.

Bernard Looney, chief executive of BP, was dismissed last year for failing to disclose personal relationships with employees, later forfeiting £32m in pay and share awards for his “serious misconduct”.

The US financial watchdog fined former McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook $400,000 last January for misleading investors about his firing in 2019, which came after several inappropriate personal relationships with employees.

London Stock Exchange owner faces potential shareholder revolt over plans to double chief’s pay

Lars Mucklejohn
Sun, 7 April 2024 a

David Schwimmer, chief executive officer of London Stock Exchange Group Plc, at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in London, UK

 Photographer: Chris J. Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The owner of the London Stock Exchange is facing shareholder dissent after a key proxy advisor opposed plans to double its chief’s pay amid a debate over how the Square Mile can compete with US-style remuneration deals.

The London Stock Exchange Group plans to boost its chief executive David Schwimmer’s pay to a reported £13.2m from £6.3m, citing its diversification into a global financial markets infrastructure and data services firm under his leadership.

The firm said in its latest annual report that changes to its remuneration policy would “enable LSEG to secure the calibre of talent and new skill sets required for LSEG’s continued transformation in a highly competitive global market”.


However, proxy advisor Glass Lewis has urged shareholders to vote against LSEG’s plans for Schwimmer’s pay at its annual general meeting on 25 April, The Sunday Times reported.

While not opposing the increase in his salary to £1.4m from £1m, Glass Lewis raised concerns over sharper rises elsewhere in his pay package.

It calculated that Schwimmer’s short-term bonus opportunity would rise to £4.1m from £2.25m under LSEG’s proposals, while his long-term bonus potential would jump to £7.5m from £3m. Glass Lewis said Schwimmer’s pay rise should be phased in over a number of years.

Schwimmer, an American, joined LSEG in 2018 after two decades at US investment banking giant Goldman Sachs.

He has overseen a period of bumper growth for the firm, transforming it into a data and analytics behemoth with some 25,000 staff and operations in more than 60 countries. LSEG’s share price has more than doubled since Schwimmer joined.

However, fears have grown over its flagship exchange, which saw just 23 new firms list last year – a 49 per cent slide from the 45 registered in an already quiet 2022.

City grandees have recently argued that London risks losing listings and top talent to the US if bosses cannot receive the larger pay deals that are available across the pond.

Julia Hoggett, the CEO of the London Stock Exchange, said last May that the UK needed a “constructive discussion” on pay to stop top bosses fleeing to New York.

Glass Lewis said that although LSEG now has more exposure to the US market, its chief “is currently UK-based, and in a UK context, his remuneration is already significant”.

ISS, another influential proxy advisor, has backed Schwimmer’s pay rise but warned it would be “significant and unusual in the UK market”.

William Vereker, who chairs LSEG’s remuneration committee, told Glass Lewis that the company consulted almost 100 shareholders representing nearly 80 per cent of the voting rights and found they were supportive of the changes to Schwimmer’s pay.

He added that the idea of “excessive” pay was an “outdated ideological position that does not reflect the realities companies face in attracting world-class talent in a global marketplace”.

An LSEG spokesperson told City A.M.: “LSEG has transformed into a highly successful, complex, global organisation since our remuneration policy was last materially reviewed in 2020, delivering strong performance and significant shareholder value.”

They said the company was “focused on securing and retaining the calibre of talent required in a highly competitive global market whilst ensuring delivery of strong performance is rewarded” and that it had “aligned executive compensation with the median of our global sector peer group and reinforced a pay-for-performance philosophy”.

World Bank’s funding of ‘hog hotel’ factory farms under fire over climate effect


Jon Ungoed-Thomas

THE GUARDIAN
Sun, 7 April 2024 

Young pigs in a lift at Guangxi Yangxiang's high-rise pig farm at Yaji Mountain in southern China.Photograph: Dominique Patton/Reuters

The private sector arm of the World Bank is facing claims that it contributes to global heating and the undermining of animal welfare by providing financial support for factory farming, including the building of pig farming tower blocks in China.

A coalition of environmental and animal welfare groups is calling on the World Bank to phase out financial support for large-scale “industrial” livestock operations. More than $1.6bn was provided for industrial farming projects between 2017 and 2023, according to an analysis by campaigners.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of the World Bank Group, is owned by 186 member countries including the UK, which has a 4.5% shareholding. Andrew Mitchell, the minister for development, is a governor of the IFC.

Kelly McNamara, a senior research and policy analyst at Friends of the Earth US, said there was a “mismatch” between the World Bank’s commitments on the climate crisis, sustainable development and animal welfare, and its financing of intensive farming. “Expanding industrial livestock production is a threat to climate, sustainable development and food security,” she said, adding that investing in such projects put smallholders out of business and increased meat consumption, fuelling global heating.

In June last year, the IFC approved a $47.3m (£37.4m) loan to the Chinese company Guangxi Yangxiang providing capital for four multistorey industrial pig-rearing complexes and a feed mill. “There are big advantages to a high-rise building,” a company manager told Reuters during early construction of the blocks at Yaji Mountain in southern China in 2018. “The land area is not that much, but you can raise a lot of pigs.” The farms, known as “hog hotels”, can be 13 floors high.

The Yangxiang group says it has combined “internet technologies such as artificial intelligence [and] cloud computing” with the traditional pig-rearing business. The company says on its website: “Yangxiang has created an industrial model with multifloor pig farming as the core and strives to build a high-end intelligent ‘meat factory’.”

Peter Stevenson, chief policy adviser at Compassion in World Farming (CIWF), said: “I’m appalled by some of these developments, which have limited space and barren conditions. They are not just damaging for animal welfare, but also for food security and the environment.”

Stevenson said intensive agriculture undermined food security because animals converted cereal feed inefficiently into meat and milk. He said it would be better to produce more crops for direct human consumption and reduce the amount of cereals used for animal feed.

Related: Behind China’s ‘pork miracle’: how technology is transforming rural hog farming

Other IFC-funded projects include intensive chicken production in India and Uganda, pig production in Ecuador and dairy production in Pakistan. In June 2022, the IFC granted a loan of up to $200m to agribusiness giant Louis Dreyfus Company to purchase soy and corn in Brazil. IFC said it would only source crops from farmers committed to zero deforestation, but campaigners said it should “stop funding the wasteful use of such crops as animal feed”.

Friends of the Earth US, CIWF and other groups will be signing a letter to Ajay Banga, the World Bank’s president, for the bank’s spring meeting later this month. It will say the organisation must acknowledge that industrial farming is a “major contributor to the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss” and phase out the funding.

World Bank officials say the environment and animal welfare are central to the IFC’s financing of farming projects, with policies and guidelines to ensure sustainable businesses. They say large-scale projects can be used to develop more efficient, environmentally friendly practices. Officials also say they strive to reduce greenhouse emissions in every project for which finance is provided. The Yangxiang group and Louis Dreyfus Company were contacted for comment.

Thames Water owner Kemble defaults on £400 million of bonds


Bloomberg
Fri, 5 April 2024 

Thames Water signage at a pumping station (PA) (PA Wire)

The holding company of Thames Water Ltd. says it defaulted after failing to make some interest payments due on its debt.

Kemble Water Finance Limited has sent a formal notice of default to the holders of its £400 million bonds due in 2026 as it didn’t pay interest due on Tuesday on some of its other debt, according to a statement.

Consultants at Alvarez & Marsal are advising the UK water and sewage company as it seeks to start talks with creditors over its debt structure.

The company is requesting creditors not to take any action, so that it can have the stability to explore “all options,” according to the filing. Kemble expects to be able to provide a further update in the coming weeks.


Read more: London's great stink: Sewage flowed into capital's rivers for almost 10,000 hours last year

Comment: Thames Water wants to raise prices 40%, spill more sewage and not be fined - after lining shareholders' pockets

UK

Pfizer accused of ‘bringing discredit’ on pharmaceutical industry after Covid social media posts


Camilla Turner
Sat, 6 April 2024 

Complaint centred around a tweet shared by medical director of company that watchdog ruled had 'limited' information - MARK LENNIHAN/AP

Pfizer has been accused by the UK’s pharmaceutical watchdog of “bringing discredit” on the industry after senior executives used social media to promote an “unlicensed” Covid vaccine.

The company has been found to have breached the regulatory code five times, which also includes making misleading claims, failing to maintain high standards and promoting unlicensed medicines.

A ruling by the pharmaceutical watchdog, the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority (PMCPA), relates to a complaint about a message posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, in November 2020 by senior Pfizer employees.

The complaint raised concern about Pfizer’s “misuse of social media to misleadingly and illegally promote their Covid vaccine”, according to the ruling.

They claimed that such “misbehaviour” on social media was “even more widespread” than they had thought and “extended right to the top of their UK operation”.
‘Unlicensed medicine proactively disseminated’

The complaint centred on a social media post on X by Dr Berkeley Phillips, the medical director of Pfizer UK. He shared a post from an employee of Pfizer in the US which said: “Our vaccine candidate is 95 per cent effective in preventing Covid-19, and 94 per cent effective in people over 65 years old. We will file all of our data with health authorities within days. Thank you to every volunteer in our trial, and to all who are tirelessly fighting this pandemic.”

Four other Pfizer employees, including one “senior” colleague, published the same message

The PMCPA ruling noted that this message contained “limited” information about the vaccine’s efficacy, no safety information and no reference to adverse events.

It went on to say that the social media post resulted in an “unlicensed medicine being proactively disseminated on Twitter to health professions and members of the public in the UK”.

A Pfizer UK spokesman said that the company “fully recognises and accepts the issues highlighted by this PMCPA ruling”, adding that it is “deeply sorry”.

They said: “Pfizer UK has a comprehensive policy on personal use of social media in relation to Pfizer’s business which prohibits colleagues from interacting with any social media related to Pfizer’s medicines and vaccines – backed by staff briefings and training.

“The personal use of social media by UK pharmaceutical industry employees in relation to company business is a challenging area for pharmaceutical companies, in which we continue to take all of the appropriate steps that are reasonably expected of a pharmaceutical company.”

As part of their response to the ruling, Pfizer said it had launched a review into its employees’ use of social media platforms to ensure compliance with their own rules as well as the regulatory code.
‘Accidental and unintentional’

It is the sixth time Pfizer has been reprimanded by the regulator over its promotion of the Covid-19 vaccine.

One ruling by the watchdog, from November 2022, found that Pfizer’s chief executive made “misleading” statements about children’s vaccines.

Following a complaint from the campaign group UsForThem, the PMCPA found that Pfizer had misled the public, made unsubstantiated claims and failed to present information in a balanced way.

Three of the other Pfizer cases related to LinkedIn posts, one related one was about claims made in a press release and one was about posts on X.

For the most recent series of breaches, Pfizer was charged administrative costs of £34,800.

Ben Kingsley, the head of legal affairs at UsForThem, said: “It’s astonishing how many times Pfizer’s senior executives have been found guilty of serious regulatory offences – in this case including the most serious offence of all under the UK Code of Practice.

“Yet the consequences for Pfizer and the individuals concerned continue to be derisory. This hopeless system of regulation for a multi-billion dollar life and death industry has become a sham, in dire need of reform.”

Dr Phillips, the UK country medical director for Pfizer, said the social media post was “accidental and unintentional” adding: “That said, we immediately accepted the case ruling and do everything we can to ensure that our employees adhere to our strict social media policy and the industry Code of Practice when using their personal social media.”

David Watson of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) said that the code of practice, which is overseen by the PMCPA, sets “high standards for companies that reflect and go beyond UK law”.

He added that cases that are found to have brought discredit on the industry are advertised in the medical, pharmaceutical, and nursing press.

UK Covid support scheme fraud has cost taxpayer over £10bn


Will Hazell
Sat, 6 April 2024 

According to a report, the total level of fraud and error in Covid support schemes amounted to an estimated £10.3bn - Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

The British taxpayer has lost more than £10 billion on Covid support schemes as a result of fraud and error, figures released by the Government show.

Labour accused ministers of attempting to “bury bad news” about public sector fraud losses totalling more than £50 billion by publishing the figures in a mass data dump.

Last month, the Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA) released a report on the “cross-Government fraud landscape”. According to the report, the total level of fraud and error in Covid support schemes amounted to an estimated £10.3 billion.

Outside Covid schemes, the PSFA estimated that total fraud and error in 2021-22 came to between £39.8 billion and £58.5 billion.

The revelations follow criticism of the Government’s commitment to tackling fraud. In 2022, Lord Agnew, the then anti-fraud minister, resigned during a Lords debate in which he accused the Treasury of having “no knowledge of, or little interest in, the consequences of fraud” and making “schoolboy errors” in relation to Covid loans.

Labour questioned the Government’s decision to quietly release the report on the final Thursday before Parliament’s Easter recess as one of more than 120 “transparency” documents. The data dump has been described as “take out the trash day” amid claims that it is used by ministers to try to conceal bad news.

Darren Jones, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, said: “The Conservatives tried their best to bury these figures under a mountain of other trash – but they cannot hide the truth that warnings were ignored and billions of pounds of public money was handed out to fraudsters.

“Instead of working tirelessly to recover that money on behalf of the British taxpayer, Rishi Sunak wants to hush it up and write it off.

“The public are sick of the rampant waste under the Conservatives while all our public services crumble and taxes overall continue to rise. That is why a Labour government will appoint a Covid corruption commissioner to chase down fraudsters, go through the dodgy contracts and clawback every pound we can.”

However, the Government disputed Labour’s claims. A spokesman said: “This is a wilful mischaracterisation of the Government’s commitment to transparency and our ongoing efforts to improve how we detect and crack down on public sector fraud and error.

“Since autumn 2021, we have invested more than £1 billion to take action, including launching the PSFA – which has saved taxpayers hundreds of millions of pounds in its first year alone – and have upgraded our AI fraud detection tool so it can flag suspicious networks and activity much earlier than before.”

Heathrow sale at risk of collapse after Australian investment giant pulls out

Luke Barr
Sat, 6 April 2024 

heathrow airport

The £6bn sale of Heathrow Airport is at risk of collapse after the Australian investment giant Macquarie ruled out buying a stake in the business.

Macquarie’s withdrawal has exposed a dearth of prospective buyers in Heathrow, largely because of the high price set by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF).

PIF triggered a battle for control of Heathrow late last year after it teamed up with the private equity firm Ardian to buy a 25pc stake in Britain’s biggest airport for £2.4bn from Ferrovial, the Spanish construction company.

However, other shareholders subsequently triggered so-called tag-along rights, with three others seeking to cash in on the lucrative offer.


They are the Canadian pension fund CDPQ, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC and the UK’s Universities Superannuation Scheme – meaning a 60pc threshold must be met to complete the sale.

The Telegraph revealed last month that Macquarie was plotting a bid to acquire the remaining 35pc stake, but the investor subsequently scrapped acquisition plans last week.

An investment fund backed by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan had reportedly shown an interest in buying a stake in Heathrow - UAE PRESIDENTIAL COURT/via REUTERS

Sources close to the deal have claimed there are no other bidders immediately apparent to support PIF and Ardian, with the latter unsuccessfully leading a charm offensive to identify another investor to raise funds.

This revelation also effectively rules out Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala investment fund, backed by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, which had reportedly shown an interest earlier this year.

It is thought both PIF and Ardian could increase their bids but by nowhere enough to reach £6bn. They have currently agreed to take 10pc and 15pc respectively.

It comes amid a looming deadline to reach an agreement with Heathrow’s shareholders.

A significant hurdle in reaching a deal is the price attached to Heathrow, as the £2.4bn bid for a 25pc stake signed off by PIF and Ardian last year raised eyebrows in the City by valuing the airport at £9.5bn.

Any investor must be willing to take an active role in the running of the airport, which has been beset by strike action and disruption in recent years.

An alternative to the deal collapsing could be an agreement between the shareholders in which they accept selling smaller stakes in return for a lower sum.

However, a source close to the talks said this could leave some investors dissatisfied.

Another option could be for shareholders to abandon tag-along rights altogether, meaning Spain’s Ferrovial can offload its shares having spent 17 years as Heathrow’s largest investor.

The issue of Heathrow’s ownership has been hanging over the airport for months, at a time when new chief executive Thomas Woldbye is attempting to overhaul the business.

Since the rebound in travel post-pandemic, the issue of capacity has been thrust back onto the agenda at Heathrow – raising renewed questions over the airport’s plans for a third runway.

Restrictions relating to its expansion have led to high-profile industry chiefs arguing that Heathrow has lost its status as a global transport hub.

Paul Griffiths, former managing director of Gatwick Airports and current boss of Dubai Airports, said Heathrow has suffered from its “shortage in capacity”.

Current shareholders in Heathrow have also previously been criticised for starving the company of investment, with scrutiny placed on £4bn of dividends extracted before the pandemic. Since then, debts in the business have ballooned to almost £20bn.

Heathrow and Ardian declined to comment.

Train drivers strike for third time in four days

Sky News
Sun, 7 April 2024




Passengers on some of the UK's busiest rail routes will face travel chaos on Monday as train drivers are set to strike for the third time in four days.

Members of Aslef will walk out resulting in significant reductions in services, especially in East Anglia and the South East.

Aslef is embroiled in a near two-year long dispute over pay, with no sign of a breakthrough and no talks planned.


The strike will hit c2c, Gatwick Express, Greater Anglia, Southeastern, Southern, South Western Railway, Great Northern and Thameslink.

The union says the dispute has cost the industry over £2bn, far more than it would have cost to resolve the conflict.

Aslef members at 16 train companies are also banning overtime on Monday and Tuesday which will further disrupt services.

Picket lines will be mounted outside the railway stations of operators affected by the strike.

Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan said his members remained solidly behind the industrial action and criticised the government and rail companies for the lack of contact over the past year.

The government introduced a new law last year aimed at ensuring minimum levels of service during strikes, but none of the train companies have opted to use it.

A Rail Delivery Group spokesperson said: "Train companies are working through plans to manage the unnecessary disruption to our passengers caused by this damaging industrial action.

"Minimum service levels are one potential tool for that but they are not a silver bullet.

"In the meantime, we remain committed to resolving this dispute and our offer, which would take average driver salaries to £65,000 for a four-day week without overtime, remains on the table."

A Department for Transport spokesperson said: "Aslef is the only rail union continuing to strike, targeting passengers and preventing their own members from voting on the pay offer that remains on the table.

"Having resolved disputes with all other rail unions, the transport secretary and rail minister have ensured that a pay offer is on the table - taking train drivers' average salaries from £60,000 up to £65,000."

UK Train drivers mount picket lines outside railway stations as strikes continue

Alan Jones, PA Industrial Correspondent
Sat, 6 April 2024 



Train drivers mounted picket lines outside railway stations on Saturday as strikes continued in a long-running pay dispute.

Aslef said the 22-month-long row had cost the industry £2 billion, much more than it would have cost to resolve the conflict.

Rail passengers suffered more travel disruption when six operators were hit by strikes.


Some areas of the country will have no services all day on Saturday.


Chiltern, TransPennine Express and Northern will not run any trains, while there will be reduced services on Great Western Railway, LNER and Heathrow Express.

LNER said it plans to run 35 services between London, Edinburgh and West Yorkshire, while no Heathrow Express trains will run before 7.25am or after 7pm.

GWR said services will be reduced, with many parts of its network having no trains all day.

Engineering work means there will be no trains between London Paddington and Reading.

The strikes follow walkouts at Avanti West Coast, East Midlands Railway, West Midlands Railway, CrossCountry and London NorthWestern on Friday, which crippled services.

Several train operators, including those serving busy commuter routes in the South East, will be hit by a strike on Monday.

A ban on overtime on Saturday, Monday and Tuesday at 16 train companies is also leading to cancellations and disruption.

Aslef says it wants to meet with train companies and ministers to try to break the deadlock, claiming that the Government does not want to resolve the row.

No meetings have been held between the union and the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) for a year, or with Transport Secretary Mark Harper since December 2022.

Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan said: “We’ve done 17 pay deals in the last 12 months across all sectors, nations and regions – freight, open-access, Elizabeth line, and Tube.

“And yet we only have a problem with one place and the place we have a problem with is the Westminster Government, who are interfering with our pay deals with the private companies we work for.”

A new law was introduced last year aimed at ensuring minimum levels of service during strikes, but none of the train operators have applied to use it.

A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “Aslef is the only rail union continuing to strike, targeting passengers and preventing their own members from voting on the pay offer that remains on the table.”

A spokesperson for the RDG said: “Minimum service level legislation is one of many useful tools for managing strike disruption, but it is not a silver bullet.”

 

New evidence links passive smoking with dangerous heart rhythm disorder

EUROPEAN SOCIETY OF CARDIOLOGY

Berlin, Germany – 7 April 2024:  Exposure to secondhand smoke – even at small amounts – is linked with greater risk of a serious heart rhythm disorder, according to research presented at EHRA 2024, a scientific congress of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).1 The likelihood of atrial fibrillation increased as the duration of passive smoking lengthened. 

“The dangers of secondhand smoke were significant regardless of whether individuals were at home, outdoors, or at work, indicating that exposure universally elevates the risk of atrial fibrillation,” said study author Dr. Kyung-Yeon Lee of Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea. “We should all make every effort to avoid spending time in smoky environments. The findings should also drive policymakers to further curb smoking in public areas and support smoking cessation programmes to improve public health.” 

Atrial fibrillation is the most common heart rhythm disorder worldwide.2 Symptoms include palpitations, shortness of breath, fatigue, and difficulty sleeping. It is estimated that one in three Europeans will develop the condition during their lifetime. People with atrial fibrillation are five times more likely to have a stroke than their healthy peers. 2 

It is well established that passive smoking is linked to coronary artery disease and premature death.3-8 However, the links between secondhand smoke and atrial fibrillation have been unclear. This study examined the association between secondhand smoke exposure and the long-term risk of incident atrial fibrillation. The study included adults aged 40 to 69 years who had used the UK National Health Service (NHS) for any reason and were enrolled in the UK Biobank. Current smokers and those with atrial fibrillation at baseline were excluded from the study. 

A total of 400,493 adults were included in the analysis. The average age of participants was 56.5 years and 55.2% were women. A touchscreen questionnaire was used to ask participants the number of hours they had been exposed to other people’s smoke in a typical week over the past year at home and in other environments. Participants were categorised into the ‘exposed group’ if they had any contact with secondhand smoke and the ‘non-exposed group’ if they had no contact with secondhand smoke. Some 85,984 (21%) participants had been exposed to secondhand smoke in the previous year, with an average exposure of 2.2 hours per week. During a median follow-up of 12.5 years, atrial fibrillation developed in 23,471 (6%) participants. 

The researchers analysed the association between exposure to secondhand smoke and incident atrial fibrillation after adjusting for factors that could potentially affect the relationship, including age, sex, ethnicity, body mass index, daily alcohol consumption, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, diabetes, high blood pressure, high blood lipids, socioeconomic status, and enrolment centre. The group exposed to secondhand smoke had a 6% higher risk of incident atrial fibrillation during follow-up compared with the non-exposed group after adjusting for the previously mentioned factors (hazard ratio 1.06, 95% confidence interval 1.03–1.10, p <0.001). 

A dose-dependent relationship was observed, whereby each increase in the duration of weekly passive smoking was linked with an even greater risk of atrial fibrillation. For example, 7.8 hours of passive smoking per week was associated with an 11% higher likelihood of the heart rhythm disorder compared with no passive smoking. The risk of atrial fibrillation for passive smokers was raised in homes, workplaces, and outside spaces. 

Dr. Lee said: “According to our study, once exposed to secondhand smoke, the likelihood of developing atrial fibrillation begins to increase, with the risk escalating significantly as the exposure time lengthens. The finding that passive smoking is harmful not only in enclosed indoor spaces but also outdoor environments underscores the importance of smoking bans to protect public health.” 

 

ENDS 

 

Authors: ESC Press Office  
Tel: +33 (0)489 872 075 

Email: press@escardio.org 

Follow us on X @ESCardioNews  

 

Notes to editor 

 

Funding: None. 

Disclosures: None. 

 

References and notes 

1The abstract ‘Secondhand tobacco smoke and risk of atrial fibrillation: an observational epidemiologic and gene-environment interaction analysis’ will be presented during the session ‘Atrial fibrillation: basic science - epidemiology’ which takes place on 7 April 2024 at 08:30 CEST at Moderated ePosters 1. 

2Hindricks G, Potpara T, Dagres N, et al. 2020 ESC Guidelines for the diagnosis and management of atrial fibrillation developed in collaboration with the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (EACTS). Eur Heart J. 2020;42:373-498. 

3Yankelevitz DF, Cham MD, Hecht H, et al. The association of secondhand tobacco smoke and CT angiography-verified coronary atherosclerosis. JACC Cardiovasc Imaging. 2017;10:652-659. 

4Yankelevitz DF, Henschke CI, Yip R, et al. Second-hand tobacco smoke in never smokers is a significant risk factor for coronary artery calcification. JACC Cardiovasc Imaging. 2013;6:651-657. 

5Peinemann F, Moebus S, Dragano N, et al. Secondhand smoke exposure and coronary artery calcification among nonsmoking participants of a population-based cohort. Environ Health Perspect. 2011;119:1556-1561. 

6Gallo V, Neasham D, Airoldi L, et al. Second-hand smoke, cotinine levels, and risk of circulatory mortality in a large cohort study of never-smokers. Epidemiology. 2010;21:207-214. 

7Glantz SA, Parmley WW. Passive smoking and heart disease. Epidemiology, physiology, and biochemistry. Circulation. 1991;83:1-12. 

8Lv X, Sun J, Bi Y, et al. Risk of all-cause mortality and cardiovascular disease associated with secondhand smoke exposure: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Int J Cardiol. 2015;199:106-115. 

 

About the European Heart Rhythm Association 

The European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA) is a branch of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). Its aim is to improve patients’ quality of life and reduce sudden cardiac death by limiting the impact of heart rhythm disturbances.  

 

About the EHRA Congress     #EHRA2024 

EHRA 2024 is the annual congress of the European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA) of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). 

 

About the European Society of Cardiology  

The European Society of Cardiology brings together health care professionals from more than 150 countries, working to advance cardiovascular medicine and help people lead longer, healthier lives. 

 

Information for journalists about registration for EHRA 2024 

EHRA 2024 will be held 7 to 9 April at the CityCube Berlin, Germany, and online. Explore the scientific programme.

• Free registration applies to accredited press. 

• Credentials: A valid press card or appropriate letter of assignment with proof of three recent published articles. Read the ESC media and embargo policy. 

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