Faulty good refunds 'too slow'

26 December 2012 Last updated at 20:39 ET

A consumer charity is calling for a change in the law so that people sold faulty goods can get a refund quickly.

Citizens Advice wants businesses to guarantee refunds are paid within 30 days of them promising money back. No set deadline exists currently - redress must be made "in reasonable time".

Citizens Advice oversaw 400,000 complaints in England and Wales between April and November this year.

The charity wants it to be easier for groups of consumers to go to court.

Class action

Citizens Advice said the complaints it had received from April to November were about products with a total value of £3bn.

The most complained about faulty products were second-hand cars bought from independent traders, furniture and television sets.

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• Retailers must refund, replace or repair faulty goods
• There is no right to return unwanted gifts, unless they were bought online and returned quickly
• Consumer rights cover discounted items too
• The buyer, not the recipient, of a gift should return it if faulty
• The seller, not the manufacturer, is responsible for providing the refund
• Anyone who buys a gift for more than £100 with a credit card has extra rights

In the days immediately following Christmas, there is typically a rush of people returning smaller items, ranging from toys to mobile phones, that were given as Christmas gifts.

Under current law, retailers are obliged to offer a refund, repair or replacement of a product that was faulty when it was sold.

Gillian Guy, chief executive of Citizens Advice, said: "By law retailers must offer refunds, repairs or replacements for faulty products but all too often this is not happening. Household budgets are tight, meaning many people do not have the money to buy a new item if its broken and the seller has refused to sort it out.

"This is not good for consumer confidence. In these tough economic times people need to know that when they buy something they are not going to be short-changed if things go wrong.

"Stronger, clearer consumer rights will help protect squeezed spenders from expensive purchases that go wrong, and will give businesses a boost as shoppers feel more confident parting with their hard-earned cash."

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Hospital plan to spot abuse victims

26 December 2012 Last updated at 21:28 ET

An online system to identify children who may be in danger of abuse or neglect is being developed for use in hospitals across England.

The £9m Child Protection Information System will alert doctors and nurses in accident and emergency departments if children are known to be at risk or had urgent treatment at other hospitals.

It will be rolled out from 2015.

Ministers say abuse will be identified earlier. Labour criticised the delay in replacing a database shelved in 2010.

The government has said tragedies that followed missed warnings, such as the cases of Peter Connelly or Victoria Climbie, may be avoided using the resource.

Under the new system, children arriving at a hospital accident and emergency or urgent care centre will be checked on the NHS computer system.

That will clarify whether the youngster is on the register for children considered to be at risk, or in council care.

The system is also intended to make it easier for doctors and nurses to see if patients had other emergency admissions elsewhere in the country.

Labour criticism

Ministers say by giving professionals the wider picture, abuse can be identified earlier.

But Labour claims the coalition undermined child protection when in 2010 it scrapped a much larger child database, introduced by the previous government.

Some charities have also raised concerns.

They say simply sharing information alone will not be enough without better training for medical professionals to spot abuse.

A national flagging system was a key recommendation of the Laming report which came out in 2003, which followed Victoria Climbie's death in 2000.

It was being introduced as part of the Integrated Children's System - a national computer system that would have all children's names on with flags if there were child protection issues.

It would provide information across different disciplines, with different levels of access.

However, it was scrapped in 2009 following claims, following the Peter Connelly case, that the system in its early form was too cumbersome and bureaucratic.

Eight-year-old Victoria died from abuse and neglect in 2000 while living with her aunt, Marie-Therese Kouao, and her boyfriend, Carl Manning.

The child was seen by dozens of social workers, nurses, doctors and police officers before she died but all failed to spot and stop the abuse as she was tortured to death.

Peter Connelly, known as Baby P or Baby Peter, died in August 2007 at home in Haringey, north London, after months of abuse which left him with more than 50 injuries.

Details of his case revealed incompetence by social workers, doctors, lawyers and police.

The mother of the 17-month-old boy, her boyfriend and a lodger were later jailed for causing or allowing Peter's death.

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Money woes 'causing family strain'

26 December 2012 Last updated at 22:17 ET

The UK's ongoing financial problems are putting an increasing strain on family relationships, a survey has suggested.

Of 2,742 people polled by the Relate charity, 59% were worried about their economic prospects for the new year.

Covering their own household bills remains the top concern for most, while 38% admitted financial worries had led to more family arguments and stress.

Relate said politicians should take into account the cost to the economy of families breaking up.

Living costs

The study was designed to assess the impact of current economic difficulties on relationships.

More than half of those asked were worried about prospects for themselves or their families, and most were more stressed about meeting day-to-day living costs than about illness or keeping their jobs.

Some 93% said that, in tough times, their family relationships were important to them.

The survey found that almost six out of 10 people shared their fears and concerns about financial or other worries with their partner, and four in 10 turned to other family members.

Women worried more about covering everyday costs - with 55% expressing this fear compared to 49% of men.

'Nearest and dearest'

Relate estimated that the cost of family breakdowns to the economy was £44bn a year, and said politicians should take families into account when formulating policy.

Relate chief executive Ruth Sutherland said: "The most striking thing about this survey is what it tells us about the value of our personal relationships.

"When times are tough and when all else fails, we turn to our nearest and dearest to get us through, and it's in our best interests to support people to make the best of their relationships at home."

The charity's chairman Andrew Ketteringham said the findings "send a strong message to politicians and public figures".

"Our personal relationships are even more important to us in the age of austerity as we turn to them for support," he said.

"Government should give equal weight to measuring the impact of policy on families and relationships as with economic considerations. Economic impact cannot continue to trump social wellbeing."

"Government must recognise the importance of relationships and families as the basis of a thriving society."

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Tributes to film composer Bennett

27 December 2012 Last updated at 01:00 ET

Tributes from the music and film worlds have been paid to composer Sir Richard Rodney Bennett who died aged 76 on Christmas Eve.

He produced more than 200 concert pieces, ballets and operas but was best known for film and TV scores, including Four Weddings and a Funeral, Murder on the Orient Express and Doctor Who.

Sir Richard won a Bafta and was three times nominated for an Oscar.

David Arnold, the Bond films composer, hailed him as "one of our greats".

"Sad news about Richard Rodney Bennett," he said on Twitter.

Sir Nicholas Kenyon, managing director of London's Barbican arts centre, said Sir Richard was "one of the most rounded musicians of our time".

BBC Radio 3 breakfast show presenter Petroc Trelawny said Sir Richard was a man who shone in the concert hall and cabaret stage.

He tweeted: "So sad to hear of Sir Richard Rodney Bennett's death."

Jazz singer Ann Hampton Callaway wrote on Facebook: "Saddened by the loss of brilliant composer, arranger, pianist and friend, Richard Rodney Bennett.

"He was one of the first friends of the music world to welcome me to New York, teach me great songs, accompany and arrange for me and record with me. He had superb taste, great talent and a wicked sense of humour."

Sir Richard, who was born in Broadstairs, Kent, began composing at the age of six and co-wrote his first work for the Sadlers Wells Opera Company in 1961. He was also a jazz singer and pianist.

Sir Richard's Oscar nominations were for Far From The Madding Crowd in 1968, Nicholas and Alexanda in 1972 and Murder on the Orient Express in 1975.

He often said that he believed the best film music he composed was for the latter movie, specifically the scene in which the train is first seen, leaving the station at Istanbul. He was awarded a Bafta for his work on the movie.

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Aged 17, he won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music and had several of his compositions performed professionally while he was still a student.

He also supported his studies as a jazz musician and later began to work regularly with Cleo Laine.

But it was his work as a film score composer that brought him international recognition.

His other film credits included Billy Liar, The Nanny, Equus, Yanks and Enchanted April

In 2004, Sir Richard composed Reflections on a Scottish Folk Song, commissioned by the Prince of Wales to honour the memory of the Queen Mother.

He was knighted in 1998 for services to music.

Chris Butler, head of publishing for Sir Richard's publisher, Music Sales Group, said: "Richard was the most complete musician of his generation - lavishly gifted as a composer, performer and entertainer in a multiplicity of styles and genres.

"He was a loyal friend to music, musicians and music publishing and we will remember him with great respect and affection."

Sir Richard died peacefully on Christmas Eve in New York, where he had lived for more than 20 years.

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Graphene research gets £21.5m fund

27 December 2012 Last updated at 03:22 ET

The Chancellor, George Osborne, has announced extra funding to boost the UK's development of the so-called "super-material" graphene.

It is one of the lightest yet strongest and most conductive materials known to man - and was originally discovered by scientists at Manchester University.

Now other universities will be asked to research potential commercial uses.

Mr Osborne said the £21.5m investment fund would aim to take the technology from the lab to the factory floor.

He has previously pledged money for such research, including £50m in 2011.

Graphene is made of sheets of carbon just one atom thick, and has outstanding mechanical strength and electronic properties.

Manchester University academics Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov won the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics for demonstrating its properties.

It is hoped that the material will be used in a wide array of industrial and everyday applications.

Government funding

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council has identified the most promising graphene-related research projects in British universities to benefit from state funding.

The University of Cambridge has been awarded more than £12m for research into graphene flexible electronics and opto-electronics, which could include things like touch-screens and other display devices.

London's Imperial College will receive over £4.5m to investigate aerospace applications of graphene.

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We need to support our universities, they're one of the jewels in the crown of the British economy"

End Quote George Osborne Chancellor

The other successful projects are based at Durham University, the University of Manchester, the University of Exeter and Royal Holloway.

The universities will work with industrial partners including Nokia, BAE Systems, Procter & Gamble, Qinetiq, Rolls-Royce, Dyson, Sharp and Philips Research, which will together bring in a further £12m in investment.

Mr Osborne told BBC Radio 4's Today programme there had been "enormous competition" for the graphene research to be done elsewhere in the world, rather than the UK.

He said: "We had to act very quickly... to step in and say we're going to provide funding here in Britain for that activity. That's an example of actually actively backing a winner to keep it in the UK."

Mr Osborne said there were several ways in which the UK could become an attractive location for scientific research, including more financial backing from the government, protecting spending on science, and more investment in big capital science projects.

He added that Britain's universities - the "jewels in the crown" of the UK economy - needed to be protected.

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Minister plays down hunt ban vote

25 December 2012 Last updated at 20:52 ET

Moves to repeal the ban on hunting with dogs in England and Wales may not happen in 2013, a minister has said.

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Environment Secretary Owen Paterson appeared to rule out a vote next year.

But he insisted it was still the government's intention to give MPs a free vote on lifting the ban.

More than 300 hunts are to hold Boxing Day meets, a week after the RSPCA's first successful prosecution of a hunt for operating illegally.

It has been illegal to use dogs to hunt animals in England and Wales since 2005, and in Scotland since 2002.

Mr Paterson told the Telegraph: "At the moment, it would not be my proposal to bring forward a vote we were going to lose."

But Mr Paterson insisted it was still the government's intention to have a free vote "but we need to choose an appropriate moment".

Ban scrapped

The RSPCA prosecution of two members of the Heythrop Hunt has led to claims illegal hunting is still going on.

The hunt's Richard Sumner and Julian Barnfield admitted unlawfully hunting with dogs on four separate occasions.

Heythrop Hunt Ltd also pleaded guilty at Oxford Magistrates Court on 17 December to four counts of the same charge.

Sumner was ordered to pay a £1,800 fine and £2,500 in court costs, Barnfield was ordered to pay a £1,000 fine £2,000 in costs and Heythrop Hunt Ltd was fined £4,000 and £15,000 in costs.

Hunts are no longer allowed to use dogs to chase down foxes, but are instead supposed to use techniques such as drag hunting, where dogs set off on the trail of a scent laid about 20 minutes in advance by a runner or rider dragging a lure.

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BBC News spends a day with a hunt in the Foret d'Eu in France

Animal welfare charities, including the RSPCA and the League Against Cruel Sports, have commissioned research which suggests that only 15% of people want to scrap the ban.

The Countryside Alliance says it has seen no slackening of support for hunting in recent years, but on the busiest day of the hunting season, members of hunts across the country will be out in force in a continued show of support for their sport.

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Judge attacks gay marriage plan

25 December 2012 Last updated at 22:38 ET

Ministers are pursuing the "wrong policy" on gay marriage, and should be focusing on family breakdown, a High Court judge has said.

Sir Paul Coleridge told the Times same-sex unions are a "minority issue".

His comments come after the Roman Catholic Church's leader in England and Wales denounced the plans.

Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols told the BBC the government had no mandate to push through same-sex marriage laws in England and Wales.

And in his Christmas Eve sermon he said that marriage between men and women shares in "the creative love of God".

Sir Paul told the Times newspaper: "So much energy and time has been put into this debate for 0.1% of the population, when we have a crisis of family breakdown.

"While it is gratifying that marriage in any context is centre stage... but it [gay marriage] is a minority issue.

"We need... a more focused position by the government on the importance of marriage."

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From a democratic point-of-view, it's a shambles"

End Quote Most Rev Vincent Nichols Archbishop of Westminster

Sir Paul last year launched independent charity Marriage Foundation to support married couples but said the charity did not take a stance on gay marriage.

He added the breakdown of marriages and its impact on society affects 99.9% of the population, which is where more investment and time should spent.

'Strongest attack'

During his BBC interview, Archbishop Nichols said of the gay marriage plans: "There was no announcement in any party manifesto, no Green Paper, no statement in the Queen's Speech. And yet here we are on the verge of primary legislation.

"From a democratic point-of-view, it's a shambles. George Orwell would be proud of that manoeuvre, I think the process is shambolic."

He claims during a "period of listening", those who responded were "7-1 against same-sex marriage".

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Archbishop of Westminster: "I think there is something of a sham going on"

BBC religious affairs correspondent Robert Pigott said this was Archbishop Nichols's strongest attack yet on the government's plans for gay marriage.

In the past, the head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales has likened committed gay relationships to "profound friendships".

Pope Benedict XVI reiterated his opposition to gay marriage last week in a pre-Christmas address, saying it was destroying the very "essence of the human creature".

"People dispute the idea that they have a nature, given to them by their bodily identity, that serves as a defining element of the human being. They deny their nature and decide that it is not something previously given to them, but that they make it for themselves."

The UK government has previously announced that the Church of England and Church in Wales will be banned in law from offering same-sex marriages, with other religious organisations able to "opt in" to holding ceremonies.

The government plans to allow gay marriage but says it will not force religious bodies to perform services.

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Tube drivers in Boxing Day strike

25 December 2012 Last updated at 22:43 ET

Hundreds of London Underground workers have gone on strike, in a long-running row over bank holiday pay.

Transport for London (TfL) says there is likely to be "significant disruption" to Tube services, and more buses will be laid on.

Members of the Aslef union have walked out for 24 hours after voting 9-1 in favour of strike action.

TfL said there would be extra buses for shoppers heading for the West End or Westfield shopping centres.

It will be the third successive walkout by Tube drivers on the first day of the post-Christmas sale.

Strike 'scandalous'

TfL said almost all the lines were expected to have a reduced and partial service and urged passengers to check before travelling. There will be no services on London Overground.

But 700 bus routes in the capital will operate a Sunday service, and extra buses will be on the routes bound for the West End or Westfield shopping centres in Stratford and White City.

The congestion charge for vehicles entering central London will not apply during the festive period and there will also be no parking charges on roads in Westminster.

Howard Collins, London Underground's chief operating officer, criticised the union for demanding to be paid "twice for the same work".

"The scandalous actions of the Aslef leadership are an attempt to hold Londoners to ransom, and demonstrate a wholesale disregard for our customers," he said.

"We will be running as many services as possible, supported by London's 700 bus routes, but there will be disruption."

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Landslide warning for South West

25 December 2012 Last updated at 23:16 ET

A rare landslide and rockfall warning has been issued for south-west England by the British Geological Survey (BGS).

The BGS has concerns about the stability of cliff edges and cliff sides because of the quantity and intensity of the recent heavy rain.

It is worried about people going for Boxing Day walks, and is advising extra caution near cliff edges.

Meanwhile, there are weather warnings for rain and flooding in England and icy roads in northern Scotland.

The British Geological Survey (BGS), along with other agencies, feeds information into the Hazard Warning Centre at the Met Office in Exeter.

The South West Coastal Path, which covers most of the Dorset, Devon, Cornwall and Somerset coasts, runs through areas which are potentially at risk.

The Met Office said an area of heavy rain would move across the country during Wednesday. It said that given the continuing saturated state of the ground this may lead to further localised flooding.

There is also a warning of icy roads for the Shetland Isles, the Orkney Isles and north-eastern parts of Scotland.

Icy stretches are expected to form overnight, especially on surfaces where showers have washed off salt treatments. The Met Office said this could lead to difficult driving conditions.

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Travel and weather information

From the BBC:

Elsewhere:

The Environment Agency has 151 flood warnings and 252 flood alerts in place in England and Wales. There are no flood warnings in Scotland.

Weather forecasters have predicted that wet weather is set to continue until at least Friday, potentially bringing further flooding to parts of the UK.

The Environment Agency has said many places will stay on flood alert despite a slight easing of weather conditions.

Met Office figures suggest 2012 is set to be one of the wettest years since records began in 1910.

Before December, the average rainfall for the year so far was 1,202mm - placing it 13th in the list of wettest years.

Due to the deluge of rain in the run up to Christmas, forecasters say 2012 is now likely to finish with one of the highest rainfall totals on record.

The year 2000 remains the UK's wettest year, with an average rainfall of 1,337mm.

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Sale shoppers 'set to spend £3bn'

26 December 2012 Last updated at 00:11 ET

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The BBC's Sophie van Brugen reports from Westfield, London, where shoppers queued throughout the night

British shoppers are expected to spend almost £3bn in the Boxing Day sales, experts have predicted.

Millions of bargain-hunters are set to descend on High Streets and shopping centres across the UK.

Shops began cutting prices and opening as early as 06:00 GMT in a bid to tempt customers in.

Market analyst Experian says online spending is expected to be the "biggest and busiest ever", accounting for almost £500m on Boxing Day.

Tube strike

Amazon UK said it had seen sales on Christmas Day increase by 263% over the last five years.

This was partly due to the growth in home broadband and the popularity of tablets and smartphones.

MoneySupermarket.com said shoppers were set to spend £2.9bn in the Boxing Day sales.

A survey for the website found that four million people plan to head to the stores, as well as five million who will shop online.

However, there could be problems for shoppers in London because of a strike by Tube drivers - although extra buses will be provided to the West End and the Westfield shopping centres in Stratford and White City.

Experian said visits to retail websites were expected to reach 126 million on Boxing Day, an increase of 31% on last year.

James Murray, from Experian, said: "Christmas 2012 is on track to be another record-breaker for online retail, outstripping 2011 on all fronts.

"The current market trends suggest that in the UK, Boxing Day will be the biggest day for online retail, with an estimated 126 million visits to online retail outlets and a massive 17 million hours spent online shopping on this day alone."

But comparison website Pricerunner said figures suggested that almost half people asked were not planning on buying anything in the sales.

Business failures

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said Christmas spending in shops this year was "acceptable but not exceptional".

BRC spokesman Richard Dodd said poor accessibility on high streets, lack of parking and weak consumer demand were more of a threat than an increase in online shopping.

He said some High Street retailers would "undoubtedly" fail after Christmas.

"Retail sales over the weekend have been up to expectations but expectations were relatively modest. Christmas will turn out to be acceptable but not exceptional," he said.

"There are a lot of myths around online retail. Ten per cent of overall retailing over the year comes from online shopping and actually it presents lots of opportunities for the retail sector."

But business recovery group Begbies Traynor warned that High Street retailers faced the threat of closure as more people shopped online.

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