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New plans to tackle 'confusion' over service numbers
Ofcom has announced measures to make the cost of calling businesses and services more transparent for consumers from June 2015.
They include:
- Clearer pricing for all numbers starting 08, 09 and 118.
- Cost of service numbers will be broken down into an ‘access charge’ to phone company, plus a ‘service charge’ to the company or organisation.
- The service charge for premium rate (09) numbers will be capped.
- Consumer calls to Freephone (0800, 0808 and 116) numbers which are generally free from landlines, will become free from mobile phones too.
- Confusion around 0845 numbers - which are sometimes tied to the cost of a geographic call - will be addressed.
Sporting moments dominate Twitter topics in 2013
Sporting moments lit up the Twittersphere in 2013, and the majority of the top ten topics in Twitter traffic, in terms of tweets per second, were sports related.
The top moment in UK Twitter traffic this year was on March 5, when Manchester United were knocked out of the Champions league, after they lost 2-1 to Real Madrid.
The second biggest moment on the social media site this year was January 1, as revellers tweeted celebrations to ring in the New Year.
Third was on July 13, when Andy Murray became the first male British singles champion of Wimbledon since Fred Perry in 1936.
Read: Andy Murray's Wimbledon victory most talked about topic on Facebook in 2013
England drawing with Brazil in a friendly on June 2, England beating Scotland in in international friendly at Wembley on August 14 and Bayern Munich's battering of Barcelona on April 23 also made the top ten.
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GP body: 'Overworked doctors need more funding'
Many GPs are working 11 hour days and seeing up to 60 patients a day in the face of increasing pressure to deliver safe patient care with diminishing resources, said the Royal College of General Practitioners in response to today's CQC findings.
RCGP chair Dr Maureen Baker described a "funding black hole worth £9 billion" in England over the past eight years, which she said was a result of investment being shifted towards hospitals.
– Dr Maureen Baker, chair of the Royal College of General PractitionersBreaches of procedure cannot be condoned, even if they are isolated incidents, but the inspections were largely targeted at particular practices which had already been identified as having problems.
Specific areas for improvement have been found and the CQC must now work with these practices to ensure that they meet the necessary standards and that other practices can learn from their experiences.
...Family doctors now receive only 8.39% of the overall UK NHS budget - yet our workloads are spiralling as the population ages and more patients are presenting with multiple and complex diseases.
Prisoners to get in-cell phones and en-suites
New state-of-the-art prisons being built in England and Wales will have telephones, showers and toilets inside each cell, along with some that feature screen terminals for inmates to order meals and book activities, a National Audit Office report revealed today.
"Most importantly, in new buildings all cells have integrated screened toilets and over 90 per cent have integrated showers," the report said.
"Some new cells contain telephones (the use of which is controlled and may be monitored by prison staff) and, at HMP Thameside, terminals to book activities and order meals.
"In-cell telephones, as well as allowing prisoners to maintain family contact (important for successful rehabilitation), also contribute to prisoner safety," the report added.
Telephone call charges 'to be made simpler' from 2015
Charges for telephone calls to business and services will be made simpler from 2015 with clearer pricing for all numbers starting 08, 09 and 118, Ofcom has announced.
Under new plans, 080 freephone numbers will be free from mobiles as well as landlines.
Ofcom said the measures are designed to tackle "consumer confusion" over non-geographic’ service numbers that have a range of uses, from finding out information to banking, directory enquiry and entertainment services.
Its aim is to make prices more transparent, improve competition, restore consumer confidence in non-geographic service numbers and increase their usage.
MPs' pay hike 'would not cost taxpayers a penny more'
MPs deserve a "one-off uplift" in their salaries, the head of the watchdog responsible for pay and expenses has insisted, ahead of today's plans expected to set out an 11% rise.
Writing in the Times, Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) chairman Sir Ian Kennedy said his expected pay hike for MPs would not cost taxpayers "a penny more."
Read: Watchdog remains defiant over planned MPs' pay rise
Ipsa are planning a tougher-than-expected squeeze on MPs' pensions to cancel out the cost of the pay hike. Sir Ian said the plan would involve a one-off rise, with MPs' wages then increasing at a more measured pace. He said the new plans mean MPs will miss out on a number of "handsome perks".
"Reform is long overdue. Some of the benefits are unjustifiable. The pensions are too generous, the old resettlement payments too handsome and some of the expenses need further tightening.
"We are in no doubt - MPs' pay needs a one-off uplift. Whatever measure you choose - including international comparisons and historic trends - they all lead to the same conclusion: MPs' pay has fallen behind. It needs to catch up.
"We will announce a one-off pay rise. Thereafter MPs' pay will move with the pay of the rest of us. That's a sensible way forward, which we will implement after a further review of conditions in 2015."
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Co-op appoints financial heavyweight to lead review
The troubled Co-operative Group has appointed financial and political heavyweight Paul Myners to its board to help lead a review of how the group is governed in the wake of the Paul Flowers scandal.
Lord Myners is the former City minister and has also held positions as chair of Marks & Spencer, Guardian Media Group and Land Securities.
South Africans line up to pay their respects to Mandela
South Africans are waiting to view the body of former President Nelson Mandela for a second day at the Union Buildings in Pretoria.
Read: Thousands queue to pay final respects to Mandela
'Relationship breakdown' behind child abduction figures
The sharp rise in children snatched by a parent and taken to a foreign country is the result of relationships between two people from different countries breaking down, a charity chief told Daybreak.
Acting Reunite director Alison Shalaby explained: "When those relationships break down, one parent wants to return to their home country. So they are making that decision for themselves but also making the decision for the child as well."
Deaths linked to legal highs soared by 80% last year
- Official figures reveal that the number of deaths being linked to legal highs soared by 80% last year to 52, from 29 in 2011.
- Ten "legal highs" were identified last year for the first time in the UK by a specialist Government system that targets music festivals and tobacco shops.
- A total of 27 new psychoactive substances, also known as legal highs, have now been detected by the Home Office's Forensic Early Warning System since it was set up in January 2011.
