Security Threat Fear Over Mobile Blackspot Plan

New laws which would force mobile firms to improve coverage in signal blackspots could threaten national security, the Home Secretary has claimed.

Theresa May has raised concerns over the plans to force companies to allow users to switch between networks if a signal is not available in a "national roaming" policy.

It would work in a similar way to the way roaming between networks does abroad.

However, Mrs May has voiced fears the move could have a "detrimental impact" on the work of police and intelligence agencies in accessing information "crucial to keeping us safe".

Sajid Javid wants to improve mobile phone coverage

The Home Secretary has expressed her reservations in a letter to David Cameron, which was leaked to The Times.

It puts her on a collision course with the Culture Secretary Sajid Javid, who is unveiling his plans later.

Video: Operator Backlash At Roaming Plans

Mr Javid made clear his intention to tackle the problem of poor mobile phone coverage, which affected a fifth of the country, when he took up his ministerial position in April.

Attempts to get agreement from the big mobile phone providers EE, O2, Three and Vodafone failed so Mr Javid is looking to legislation to force network sharing.

Mr Javid said: "I'm determined to ensure the UK has world-class mobile phone coverage as investment in infrastructure will help drive this government's long-term economic plan.

"It can't be right that in a fifth of the UK, people cannot use their phones to make a call. The Government isn't prepared to let that situation continue."

Other options being considered are:

:: Networks compelled to share equipment such as phone masts

:: Firms such as Tesco and Virgin allowed to sell packages offering access to all networks

:: Mobile phone firms forced to cover a certain percentage of the UK.

Mr Javid told Radio 4's Today programme: "The Home Secretary like every other member of the Government fully supports the strategy that we are setting out today."

Disclosure of Mrs May's intervention comes two days after the resignation of Lib Dem Home Office minister Norman Baker, who resigned after a series of run-ins.

Mr Baker said the Home Secretary was a "formidable woman" but accused her of putting obstacles in his way and regarding the Coalition as a Conservative government.

Shadow culture secretary Harriet Harman said: "Rather than briefing against each other as part of the ongoing Tory leadership squabble to replace David Cameron, Cabinet ministers should be making clear what the impact will be on 4G services for consumers and the emergency services, as well as any possible implications for national security and the fight against serious crime."

A spokesman for EE said: "We welcome the Government's consultation and an opportunity to examine the best way to improve voice coverage, as well as share our own plans to bring better voice call service to the UK. However, we have concerns about the  feasibility of some of the proposals and their potentially damaging impact on consumers, competition and investment."

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Credit Threat To Child Maintenance Dodgers

Parents who refuse to pay child maintenance face being turned down for credit cards and mortgages.

Under government plans, details of those who default on contributions towards their child's upbringing will be shared with credit reference agencies, threatening their credit score.

Having a weak credit rating can mean people are refused forms of financial credit such as personal loans, mortgages, credit cards, hire purchase finance arrangements and mobile phone contracts.

Even if someone is not turned down for credit, a blotted history could mean that they are given a smaller credit limit or charged a worse rate of interest.

Information about non-payment of child maintenance could be shared with credit reference agencies at the point where a liability order is made against a parent.

These are granted after an application is made to a court for legal recognition of a debt.

Just under 1.5 million child maintenance cases are being overseen by the Child Maintenance Service and the Child Support Agency and in the majority of cases, parents who no longer live in the family home do contribute towards their child's upbringing.

Between April 2013 and March 2014, 12,410 liability orders were granted.

The new powers, which are subject to parliamentary approval, will also mean that parents with a good payment record can ask that this information is shared if they feel that it could boost their ability to get credit.

Child Maintenance Minister Steve Webb said: "For too long, a minority of absent parents have got away with failing to pay maintenance, leaving families without that financial support.

"This Government is determined to take action to tackle this kind of irresponsible behaviour and support families.

"I would hope that we see this power used very little, because the deterrent effect of a possible negative mark on a person's credit rating will convince those who have previously failed to pay towards their children's upbringing to do the right thing."

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Interest Rate Hike 'Knocked On The Head'

A slowdown in the UK's economic recovery means there is no prospect of an interest rate increase, according to a closely-watched report on activity.

The Markit/CIPS services purchasing managers' index (PMI) for October came in at a 17-month low with growth weaker than even the gloomiest forecasts had suggested.

The survey found that mounting economic uncertainty was hitting confidence, with stagnation in the eurozone, China's slowdown and the shaky recovery in the US all highlighted as factors.

Markit said a weakening of its composite PMI, which also took in the construction and manufacturing sectors, and an absence of inflationary pressure suggested that the Bank of England would wait to raise borrowing costs.

Its chief economist, Chris Williamson, said: "Slower service sector growth knocks the prospect of interest rate hikes firmly on the head.

"An increasingly downbeat flow of economic data in recent weeks ...has thrown a cloud of uncertainty over the outlook."

The report suggested Britain was on track to record GDP growth of 0.5% in the fourth quarter of the year - down from the 0.7% recorded in the previous three months.

The Bank of England said last month that it expected growth of 0.8% between October and December.

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Flood Defences At Risk With Funding Squeeze

A lack of cash for flood defences is increasing the risk of serious problems in many areas if winter storms hit, a spending watchdog has warned.

The National Audit Office (NAO) says half of the country's flood defences - more than 1,300 schemes - are only being maintained to a "minimal level".

But the Government insists there has been a real-term increase in flood defence funding.

Somerset was particularly hard-hit by the winter floods

Whitehall made an extra £270m available following the winter storms last year, which saw widespread flooding during the wettest winter on record, including an additional £35m in each of the next two years for maintaining defences.

The NAO report said the additional money restored funding for maintaining defences to 2010-11 levels in cash terms.

Video: Feb 21: UK Flooding View From Above

But in real terms - adjusted for inflation - the report found it represented a 6% drop in spending for maintenance since the Tory-led coalition took office.

Without the extra cash from the Government following the winter floods, total funding for flood protection has fallen by 10% since 2010.

While the Environment Agency has improved efficiency, the increased risk of extreme weather events as a result of climate change means current budgets will be under pressure, the NAO said.

The winter storms flooded 7,700 homes and 3,200 commercial properties, as well as cutting off power to hundreds of thousands more households and flooding 49,000 hectares of agricultural land, with areas such as the Somerset Levels particularly badly hit.

Video: Flood-Hit Family Put Home On Stilts

Responding to the report, chairwoman of the Commons Public Accounts Committee Margaret Hodge, said: "I am deeply concerned that current levels of spending are not enough to maintain flood protection, with five million homes at risk of flooding and people's livelihoods in jeopardy.

"It is alarming that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has cut spending on flood protection by 10% between 2011-12 and 2014-15 and it had to react with an emergency bailout of £270m following the winter floods in 2013."

Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office, said: "The agency, as it recognises, will need to make difficult decisions about whether to continue maintaining assets in some areas or let them lapse, increasing in future both the risk of floods and the potential need for more expensive ad-hoc emergency solutions."

But Floods Minister Dan Rogerson said: "The NAO has drawn conclusions on funding based on inappropriate comparisons.

Video: Feb 11: Hammond Cornered On Floods

"We have invested £3.2bn in flood management and defences over the course of this parliament which is a real term increase and half a billion more than in the previous parliament.

"Not only are we spending more than ever before, but we are also ensuring that our investment strategy will deliver long-term value for money."

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Dating Site For People With STIs Fined £10m

A dating website for people with sexually transmitted infections has been ordered to pay out $16.5m (£10.3m) after sharing a user's profile with millions of people despite promising confidentiality.

A lawsuit alleged that the plaintiff - known only as John Doe - and other members of the Positive Singles site were misled about their privacy when they joined the site.

The service promised full confidentiality, saying it would not share data with third parties.

But parent company Successful Match mined profiles and displayed members' images and other information on its subsidiary websites.

In the original complaint, Mr Doe said users were lured in with "empathetic sounding statements like 'you feel like you are all alone in the world, do you wish there was a place where you didn't have to worry about being rejected or discriminated'."

The website describes itself as a "warmhearted and exclusive community for singles and friends with STDs" that "cares about your privacy more than other sites".

A jury agreed with Mr Doe's claim, and ordered the dating company to pay $1.5m (£940,000) in compensation to him, plus $15m (£9.4m) in punitive damages.

A similar case against the websites filed by two women from Canada and Washington state is ongoing.

Successful Match's network of sites have a total of 732,000 users.

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EU Migrants Pay In More Than They Take - Study

EU migrants contribute more to the UK in taxes than they receive in benefits and services, according to new research.

But the study showed those arriving from outside Europe over a 17-year period took more from the public purse than they put back in.

The findings come as David Cameron moves to tighten the UK's immigration controls by limited EU migration in the face of the growing popularity of UKIP.

The Prime Minister is aware of the need to calm Tory jitters ahead of this month's crunch by-election in Rochester and Strood, where the party is desperate to prevent a second seat falling to UKIP.

The University College London (UCL) report revealed European immigrants made a positive financial contribution of £4.4bn to the UK between 1995 and 2011.

Video: Immigration: Study Out Of Date

However, immigrants from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) made a negative contribution of £118bn.

Over the same period, UK-born workers made a negative contribution of £591bn.

The figures improved for more recent arrivals with EU migrants between 2001-11 making a positive contribution of £20bn, and those from outside Europe £5bn.

Professor Christian Dustmann, director of UCL's Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (Cream) and co-author of the study, said: "A key concern in the public debate on migration is whether immigrants contribute their fair share to the tax and welfare systems.

"Our new analysis draws a positive picture of the overall fiscal contribution made by recent immigrant cohorts, particularly of immigrants arriving from the EU."

He added: "European immigrants, particularly, both from the new accession countries and the rest of the European Union, make the most substantial contributions.

"This is mainly down to their higher average labour market participation compared with natives and their lower receipt of welfare benefits."

Immigration Minister James Brokenshire told Sky News the focus of the report was too narrow and not up-to-date. 

Video: Report: Migrants Boost UK Economy

He said: "In respect of the time period that it talks to, it ends in 2011 whereas we have seen the pressure from EU migration - net migration, those who are coming versus those who are going out - over the course of the last 18 months it has more than doubled during that period.

"It also does not take into account pressure on schools, roads, housing services, those things that really matter to people in their communities."

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said the report showed the balance on immigration was wrong and there needed to be proper border controls but that Britain must remain an "open economy".

He told ITV's Lorraine programme: "If we were simply to turn our back on the world, which is what UKIP and the Conservative Party and others want, as a country we would be poorer."

UKIP Migration spokesman MEP Steven Woolfe, said: "What this study doesn't do is to show what wealth our own people could have generated if they weren't subjected to wage-reducing, employment-displacing mass immigration from the EU. Nor does it truly take into account the opportunity costs to the UK of substituting large sections of Britain's workforce with migrant labour."

Responding to the report, chairman of the MigrationWatch UK think tank Sir Andrew Green said: "This report confirms that immigration as a whole has cost up to £150bn in the last 17 years.

"As for recent European migrants, even on their own figures - which we dispute - their contribution to the exchequer amounts to less than £1 a week per head of our population."

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Christmas Costs 'Falling' Amid Price War

A retail industry body has said Christmas shoppers look set to benefit this year as it charts falling shop prices, with food costs growing at their lowest level since at least 2006.

The British Retail Consortium's (BRC) shop price index for October, compiled by Nielsen, showed that the battle for customers between discounters and the major supermarket chains was providing benefits for consumers.

It measured falls in the price of kitchen essentials such as milk, cheese and eggs for the first time since February 2010.

The BRC said convenience food was also cheaper than it was a year ago.

Total food inflation stood at just 0.1% in October, the lowest rate since the index began in 2006, after three consecutive months at 0.3%.

Overall, shops reported deflation for the 18th-consecutive month, accelerating to an annual rate of 1.9% in October from 1.8% in September as key agricultural commodity costs fell further amid market concern about the world economy.

The report said that in addition to that, discounts on clothes and electrical goods also continued to have an impact.

BRC director general Helen Dickinson said: "With the current competitive environment, retailers are passing most of these savings on to consumers.

"This should mean great deals for shoppers as they start stocking up on seasonal fare.

"As Christmas swiftly approaches, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that budgets will go a little bit further this year."

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Chinese Tycoon Buys Van Gogh Poppies For £39m

A rare piece of art by Vincent van Gogh has reportedly been sold to one of China's richest men for £39m ($62m).

Wang Zhongjun, chairman of the high-powered Huayi Brothers film studio, has become the latest businessmen to pay an eyebrow-raising amount for a painting, according to Shanghai-based news site The Paper.

The 1890 painting - Still Life, Vase With Daisies And Poppies - was expected to fetch between $30m and $50m at Sotheby's in New York, but sold for $61.8m.

The auction record for a van Gogh is $82.5m.

Last year, tycoon Wang Jianlin's Wanda Group bought the 1950 Pablo Picasso painting Claude And Paloma for $28m, more than double the high estimate of $12m.

Modigliani's Tete sculpture also sold for £44.4m

At the time, the company came under fire for the extravagant purchase, with some Chinese internet users questioning Wang Jianlin's patriotism and the painting's value.

Wang Zhongjun has come under similar criticism.

"One madman buying a painting by another madman," one user wrote on Sina Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter.

"This is how he spends all the investors' money? What a waste," wrote another.

The auction also brought in £63.5m ($101m) for Chariot, a rare sculpture by Alberto Giacometti.

The 1951 bronze sculpture features an elongated, goddess-like figure perched atop a wheeled chariot. The price almost broke the $104.3m record for the artist.

Amedeo Modigliani's Tete sculpture sold for £44.4m ($70.7m), just topping the previous auction record for the artist at $69m.

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Ex-Swinton Execs Fined Over Mis-Selling

The City regulator has fined, and banned from top financial services jobs, three former executives at Swinton Insurance over historic mis-selling scandals.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced the penalties against the individuals after the company was previously fined more than £8m.

The action followed investigations which found failures in its sales of payment protection insurance in 2009.

Four years later the insurer was ordered to pay £7.4m as "aggressive" efforts to hit bonus-linked profit targets resulted in "mis-sales of monthly add-on insurance policies."

The FCA said on Wednesday that former chief executive Peter Halpin was to pay £412,700 and had been banned from acting as chief executive of a financial services firm.

Anthony Clare, the ex-finance director, and former marketing boss Nicholas Bowyer were banned from "performing significant influence functions at financial services firms."

They were ordered to pay £208,600 and 306,700 respectively.

Tracey McDermott, the FCA's director of enforcement, said: "A culture was allowed to develop within Swinton that pushed for high sales and increased profit without regard to the impact on the firm's customers.

"We expect firms to put customers at the heart of their business. These three directors should have recognised the risk to customers and redressed the balance so that the drive to maximise profits did not jeopardise the fair treatment of customers.

"Today's enforcement action should serve as a timely reminder to those at the very top of firms that the FCA is determined to hold individuals to account where they fall short of the standard we require."

The FCA said that Swinton's participating directors at the time of the failures collectively stood to gain a bonus of approximately £90m under the directors' share scheme if operating profits reached £110m in 2011.

It said that Halpin, Clare and Bowyer would have "benefited significantly" under the scheme had the target been met.

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M&S Profits Up But Warm Autumn Hits Clothing

M&S has reported a 2.3% rise in half-year profits, but said its troubled clothing division was hit by an unseasonably warm September.

The retailer's latest results marked a 13th consecutive quarterly fall in underlying sales of general merchandise, which include clothing, while web sales fell more than 6% in the six-month period.

M&S said its margins improved in the first half, helping it drive underlying profits higher for the first time in four years to £268m, and it signalled that shoppers should not expect discounting ahead of Christmas by raising its non-food margin projections.

The food business, which has been growing steadily against a backdrop of struggles elsewhere, continued to impress in the 26 weeks to 27 September with sales up 3.6%.

M&S Simply Food stores are helping drive profitability

M&S said the success of its Simply Food stores meant it was planning to open 200 new outlets over the next three years.

The company insisted that it had turned around womenswear - with sales rising 1.3% over five months and improved customer feedback.

Video: Expert Opinion On M&S Website Woes

But it did not provide a six-month figure - choosing to omit September's sales because it was "an unseasonable month."

Nevertheless, Chief executive Marc Bolland told Sky News he was pleased by the performance, saying "style is back" and "wraps are in".

Mr Bolland, who took over in 2010, said the group was improving "step by step", but a new clothing team he set up in 2012 had so far failed to deliver a sustained increase in sales.

M&S estimated a 1.3% hit to clothing from "unseasonal conditions" in September - with the mild weather, also charted by rival Next, not helpful for shifting high-margin winter coats, knitwear and boots.

Mr Bolland has spent over £2.3bn to address decades of under-investment, overseeing the revamp of products, stores, a new website and marketing.

He said the disappointing internet sales figure was a consequence of the new website, which has cost M&S £150m.

Mr Bolland blamed a "massive change, moving to a new platform".

Shares in M&S, which were down almost a fifth over the past year ahead of today's results, rose 6.5% when trading began on the FTSE 100.

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