Tesco has revealed its best UK sales growth in three years as the chain's drive to reverse falling profits gathered pace over Christmas.

Like-for-like sales in the UK grew by 1.8% in the six weeks to January 5 after a big improvement in food following last year's disastrous showing.

Chief executive Philip Clarke said the seasonal performance was encouraging but added there was "a lot more to do" as the market leader looks to recover from last year's first drop in profits for two decades.

Tesco shares opened 3% higher. While the sales figure was better than City expectations, it was helped by comparisons with the previous Christmas, when the chain admitted it messed up its pricing strategy in a performance that wiped billions of pounds from its share price.

Having taken over the running of the UK division last year, Mr Clarke announced that Chris Bush, who has worked for the company for 30 years, is to join the Tesco board as UK managing director.

Mr Clarke's turnaround strategy has brought significant investment on a range of initiatives, including an additional 8,000 staff and the launch of its Everyday Value range, which has replaced Tesco Value.

Mr Clarke said Everyday Value and its upmarket equivalent, Finest, outperformed the business as a whole, with customers responding to a much stronger seasonal offering in these ranges.

He added that more work was needed to improve Tesco's performance in general merchandise, although he said the trends were better over Christmas.

Published: 10 January 2013

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Pensioners have been given some welcome news after the UK's top statistician said a key measure of inflation linked to retirement income and a raft of other investments and services should remain unchanged.

Jil Matheson, the national statistician, said that while the calculations used behind the RPI (Retail Prices Index) do not meet international standards, the index should be maintained due to its "significant value" to index-linked bond markets.

She recommended that a new index should be created from March, called RPIJ, which would use a different way of calculating the prices of goods and be closer aligned to the UK's benchmark level of inflation, the CPI (Consumer Prices Index).

There had been fears that changes to RPI calculations would see the index rise at a slower pace, which would have far-reaching implications as the index is linked to a wide variety of services and investments, from water bills and rail fares to pensions and even national debt.

There were concerns in particular for pensioners, as many annuities are linked to RPI and even a small percentage change could knock thousands of pounds off a typical 20-year retirement income. Many private pensioners also have their annual increases linked to RPI, while returns for investors with index-linked bonds and savings certificates are likewise based on the index.

The RPI review had also attracted controversy, as any change prompting a fall in the index would have provided a boost to Chancellor George Osborne and his debt-busting plans, saving the Treasury billions of pounds a year in interest on Government bonds.

Pensions expert Ros Altmann, director-general of Saga, said the decision not to alter RPI was "excellent news". She added: "To have radically changed the traditional inflation measure, on which many people's incomes depend, could have jeopardised the inflation protection inherent in many people's income arrangements."

Published: 10 January 2013

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Fears of a triple-dip recession will loom large for Bank of England policymakers after a gloomy start to the year for the economy.

Despite the continuing uncertainty, the Bank's nine-strong Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is expected to remain in "wait and see" mode this month and potentially some months to come.

Economists predict interest rates will be held at 0.5% for the foreseeable future, while the Bank is not expected to consider more economy-boosting measures under its quantitative easing (QE) programme until the path for the economy becomes more certain.

Many pundits think gross domestic product (GDP) slipped back into the red in the final quarter of 2012 following figures suggesting the dominant services sector contracted in December for the first time in two years.

With manufacturing the only bright spot so far in December after Markit/CIPS survey data also pointed to a poor performance from the construction industry, many experts hold out little hope for growth and fear the new year will bring scant economic respite.

A narrowing of the UK's trade deficit to £3.5 billion in November also failed to calm fears as economists said there needed to be a far bigger improvement in December to prevent net trade dragging on GDP in the fourth quarter.

America's recent fiscal cliff deal to avoid automatic tax hikes and spending cuts has provided some relief for the wider global economy, while the recent easing of eurozone sovereign debt tensions has likewise improved the outlook.

Published: 09 January 2013

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A debt-ridden NHS trust which was on the brink of bankruptcy should be dissolved, an official consultation has concluded.

South London Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs three hospitals in the capital, was the first ever to be placed in administration after it started losing around £1.3 million a week.

Special administrator Matthew Kershaw said the trust should now be broken up, with other organisations taking over the management and delivery of its services.

The report, which came after Mr Kershaw was tasked with putting the trust on a stable financial footing last year, recommended any debts should be written off by the Department of Health so new organisations are not "saddled with the issues of the past".

Its recommendations would result in a radical overhaul of services in south London.

This would see the Queen Elizabeth Hospital site in Woolwich come together with Lewisham Healthcare NHS Trust to create a new organisation providing care for the communities of Greenwich and Lewisham.

Published: 08 January 2013

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British television presenter Jim Davidson on Wednesday denied claims made against him after becoming the latest celebrity to be arrested by police investigating historic sexual abuse allegations.

Metropolitan Police said officers from Operation Yewtree, set up last year in the wake of claims of abuse against late BBC presenter Jimmy Savile, had detained two men in their 50s on suspicion of sexual offences.

One man, aged 53, was arrested in Hampshire, southern England, at 8.00am local time (0800GMT) and another man, 59, was arrested in west London two hours later and taken to a London police station, according to a police spokesman.

Davidson's solicitor said his client faced two claims.

"Two women have made allegations in respect of Jim that date back approximately 25 years," said Henri Brandman in a statement.

"The complainants were then in their mid 20s.

"Jim vigorously denies the allegations and he has not been charged with any offence," he added.

Scotland Yard later said that the two men had been bailed until March and stressed that the arrests were not connected to the specific allegations made against Savile.

Davidson, 59, found fame as a bawdy stand-up comedian in the 1970s before going on to host BBC's prime-time snooker-based game show "Big Break" during the 90s.

The presenter, once named "Britain's funniest man", has spoken about his battles against alcoholism and admitted to violent attacks against his former wife.

According to reports, he was arrested at London's Heathrow Airport shortly after flying in to take part in this year's Celebrity Big Brother show

Published: 03 January 2013

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Supermarket Waitrose has said it saw "exceptional" sales in the run up to New Year's Eve as shoppers stocked up on champagne and party food.

The grocer, which has 288 shops across the country, said like-for-like sales were 5.4% higher than last year between December 18 and 31 as shoppers prepared to entertain friends and family during the festive period.

With demand for fresh food also strong, total sales in the 12-day period broke the £300 million barrier for the first time following an 8.8% rise.

Managing director Mark Price said: "Our sales for the festive period as a whole have been record-breaking, but the 12 trading days leading up to New Year's Eve were exceptional as customers got ready for family entertaining and parties."

Waitrose scaled back its Christmas advertising campaign for 2012 and instead featured chefs Delia Smith and Heston Blumenthal promoting its community charity scheme in an empty studio.

It also extended its shop opening hours during the festive period, with some shops opening as late as 11pm.

Last week it reported that in its Christmas trading period, between November 4 and December 24, sales were up 4.3% on a like-for-like basis.

Published: 03 January 2013

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Special masses for gay Catholics at a London church are to be scrapped, the Archbishop of Westminster has said.

Archbishop Vincent Nichols, who has been one of the loudest voices opposing Government plans to allow same-sex marriages, said the fortnightly masses were not in line with the church's central teaching on sexuality.

In a statement he said that "people with same-sex attraction" would continue to receive pastoral care but the services at Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Warwick Street, Soho, would end.

The church will be dedicated at Lent to the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, a group set up by Pope Benedict XVI in 2011 for Anglican clergy who defected to Roman Catholicism.

Archbishop Nicholl said: "The moral teaching of the church is that the proper use of our sexual faculty is within a marriage, between a man and a woman, open to the procreation and nurturing of new human life. As I stated in March 2012, this means 'that many types of sexual activity, including same-sex sexual activity, are not consistent with the teaching of the church'."

Archbishop Nichols, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, has previously attacked the Government's gay marriage Bill, labelling it "undemocratic" and a "shambles".

He addressed the subject in the Christmas Eve Mass at Westminster Cathedral, saying: "Sometimes sexual expression can be without the public bond of the faithfulness of marriage and its ordering to new life. Even governments mistakenly promote such patterns of sexual intimacy as objectively to be approved and even encouraged among the young." He used his Christmas Day message to describe the gay marriage plans as "Orwellian".

Published: 02 January 2013

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The Jimmy Savile scandal may not have a big enough effect on social attitudes towards child abuse, a former leading judge said.

Baroness Butler-Sloss, who chaired the Cleveland Child Abuse Inquiry and the Family Court division of the High Court, said it was vital that girls under 16 were always seen as victims in abuse cases.

She said both the Savile case and more recent crimes demonstrated that too often, too many people laid some blame with the victims.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, she said: "What worries me about Jimmy Savile and the appalling story is everybody will be terribly upset for a while and then it will die down.

"There have been a whole lot of scandals... the story comes up again and again. You get it in all kinds of places."

Highlighting recent cases, the cross-bench peer said that in some instances, police and social workers had seen victims as "bad girls" and "overlooked these were criminal offences".

She added: "The law is there to protect children and you don't start treating children under 16 as bad girls, you start by saying 'how can they be protected from this kind of bad behaviour?'"

Published: 02 January 2013

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Spectators basked in sunshine as London welcomed 2013 with a New Year's Day parade that celebrated the city's Olympics glory.

Organisers said more than 500,000 people had enjoyed the fair weather as floats, cheerleaders and brass bands marched through the centre of the capital.

The stars of the show were the Olympic volunteers who welcomed the world to London in the summer and helped make the Games such a success.

Crowds were entertained by the Pandemonium Drummers, whose performance was one of the Olympics opening ceremony's highlights, and the Games Maker Choir.

Event organiser Bob Bone told Sky News: "We thought it was a fitting thing to ask them (the Games Makers) to come into our parade so that we could say thank you to them.

"But also we are looking forward as well as backward, because I think the Games Makers have shown that there's a great volunteering spirit in this country.

"There are lots of things that people can carry on doing to carry that spirit of the Games Makers forward into 2013 and beyond."

Published: 01 January 2013

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Three-quarters of doctors struck off the medical register this year were trained abroad, according to new figures.

Of 39 that were struck off to September, 29 had their primary medical qualification (PMQ) outside Britain, including 12 in India, statistics from the General Medical Council (GMC) show.

Of 285 struck off since 2008, 194 had their PMQ overseas, including 64 in India.

The Sunday Telegraph, which obtained the statistics using freedom of information laws, said they would add to concerns that NHS patients are not protected adequately from health professionals from countries where training is less rigorous than in the UK and from those who are unfamiliar with basic medical practices in Britain.

The figures show that since 2008, 669 doctors have been either struck off or suspended by the GMC. Of these, 249 were British and 420 trained abroad.

The newspaper said that one third of doctors on the register were trained abroad, and two thirds trained in Britain.

GMC chief executive Niall Dickson said: "We absolutely acknowledge that when it comes to the serious end of the scale, those from overseas are more likely to appear, and we have set about a series of reforms to address this."

Published: 30 December 2012

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