Tax Cheats Named By HMRC For First Time

HMRC has published the names of nine individuals and businesses which it says each owe more than £25,000 in tax.

The tax authority described those named as "deliberate defaulters" who had repeatedly failed to co-operate with the taxman.

HMRC said those on the list had already received penalties for either errors in their tax returns or for failing to comply with their tax obligations.

But it stressed that the entries were specific to certain dates, and those named may no longer be defaulting on their tax.

The details published included names, addresses, occupations and the total amount of tax owed.

The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, David Gauke, said: "HMRC is dedicated to clamping down on the small minority of people who break the law, and finding and taking action against tax cheats who try to evade their responsibilities.

"The publication of these names sends a clear signal that cheating on tax is wrong and reassures people who pay their taxes - the vast majority - that there are consequences for those who refuse to tell HMRC about their full liability.

"It also encourages defaulters to make a full and prompt disclosure and cooperate with HMRC to avoid being named."

The following were on the list:

:: Southport Leisure, a licensed bar and club on Coronation Walk, Southport

:: Joseph Tyrrell, a hairdresser from Prescot Road, Liverpool

:: The Trade Beverage Company which bought and sold wine on Marrion Drive, Cheshire

:: Rafique Maroof Raja, a licenced grocer from Main Street, Kirkcaldy

:: S Stewart, a pipework specialist from Bishops Court, Liverpool

:: David Alan Jay, who works in property maintenance from Roseberry Gardens, Essex

:: Gatemain Contractors, a building company, on Holly Road, Rochester

:: Menemis, a knitwear manufacturer trading as Unlimited Knits, on Byron Industrial Estate, Nottingham

:: Brian Clifford Tattersall, a coach operator from Pixmore Avenue. Bolton

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Fuel Prices 'Head For Highest Level Ever'

Motorists have been warned that petrol prices may soon reach their highest level ever.

The AA said Sterling's slide and market speculation could push prices to record levels by Easter.

The warning comes as tanker drivers at the Grangemouth refinery, which supplies Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England, begin a three-day strike in a row over pay and pensions.

After surging 5p a litre over a month, the price of petrol at the pumps has gone up a further 1p in the last five days, the AA said.

It revealed that the average cost of petrol in the UK is now 138.32p per litre, with diesel having risen 4.78p from its mid-January price to stand at an average of 145.10p.

The latest figures show that petrol has risen 6.24p since early January, adding £3.12 to the cost of refilling a typical 50-litre tank.

The AA said filling up the 70-litre tank of a Ford Mondeo now costs £4.37 more than it did six weeks ago.

A two-car family's monthly petrol cost has risen £13.25 with the current price surge.

Petrol price component breakdown over the past decade

It added that drivers have been caught between the a pound weakened against the dollar and soaring wholesale prices, both due to stock market speculation.

Regionally, Yorkshire and Humberside and the north of England are the cheapest for petrol at the moment at 137.6p a litre, with prices in London and Scotland at an average of 137.8p. Northern Ireland is the most expensive at 138.7p.

Yorkshire and Humberside remains the cheapest region for diesel, averaging 144.2p, while East Anglia, Northern Ireland and south-east England are the most expensive at 145.2p.

AA president Edmund King said: "This latest surge in fuel prices and its impact on spending indicates that UK drivers and families can't take any more.

"We're no longer talking of the motorist as a cash cow for tax and speculator greed, but a horse slowly but surely being flogged to death.

"This is the third 10p-a-litre wholesale price surge in 11 months, given extra vigour by currency speculators betting against the pound."

Government revenue from fuel duty has also been hard hit, due to suppressed volumes sold as Britons cut back on non-essential journeys.

HM Revenue and Customs figures showed that January's UK petrol sales fell to the lowest tracked by the Government in 23 years.

Drivers consumed 1.465 billion litres of petrol last month, down 14 million litres on the previous all-time low set in March last year and nearly 100 million litres below December's consumption of 1.564bn litres.

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Big Four Accountants 'Dominating Market'

An investigation into the UK's audit market finds that competition is restricted by factors making it hard for companies to switch accountants.

The Competition Commission (CC) said the so-called "big four" audit firms - Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers - dominate the market, as revealed by Sky's City Editor on Thursday. 

It said it was exploring implementing "mandatory tendering" of audit contracts and "mandatory rotation" of firms by companies.

Britain's largest listed companies lack bargaining power, the CC said, because it is difficult for them to switch firms, given the difficulties in comparing alternatives and the costs involved.

Its provisional findings also highlighted that audit firms often ignore the interests of their primary customer - companies' shareholders - meeting the demands of executive management instead.

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HMV To Close 37 More Stores With 464 Jobs Cut

Is Your Local HMV Being Axed?

Updated: 12:15pm UK, Wednesday 20 February 2013

The latest 37 HMV stores identified for closure are:

Ashford, Basildon, Bolton, Cheltenham, East Kilbride, Enfield, Folkestone, Glasgow Argyle, Gloucester, Grimsby, Hatfield Galleria, Heathrow T5 Departure Level, Heathrow Terminal 1, Heathrow Terminal 3, Heathrow Terminal 4, Hemel Hempstead, High Wycombe, Isle of Wight, Lancaster, Leadenhall, Mansfield, Middlesbrough, Newbury, Newcastle Silverlink, Newport, Nuneaton, Redditch, Salisbury, Scarborough, Southport, Stafford, Staines, Stockport, Swindon, Taunton, Torquay, Woking.

The 66 stores already earmarked for closure were:

Ashton-under-Lyne, Ballymena, Barnsley, Bayswater, Belfast Boucher Road, Belfast Forestside, Bexleyheath, Birkenhead, Birmingham Fort, Blackburn, Boston, Bournemouth Castlepoint, Bracknell, Burton-upon-Trent, Camberley, Chesterfield, Coleraine, Craigavon, Croydon Centrale, Derry, Dumfries, Durham, Edinburgh Fort, Edinburgh Gyle Centre, Edinburgh Ocean, Edinburgh Princes Street, Edinburgh St James, Falkirk, Fulham, Glasgow – Fort, Glasgow – Silverburn, Glasgow Braehead, Huddersfield, Kirkcaldy, Leamington Spa, Leeds White Rose, Lisburn, Loughborough, Luton, Manchester 90, Moorgate, Newry, Newtonabbey, Orpington, Rochdale, Scunthorpe, South Shields, Speke Park, St Albans, St Helens, Stockton-on-Tees, Tamworth, Teesside, Telford, Trocadero, Wakefield, Walsall, Walton-on-Thames, Wandsworth, Warrington, Watford, Wellingborough, Wigan, Wood Green, Workington, Wrexham.

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Private Firms 'Better To Run Prisons', Report

Private firms are better at running prisons than the public sector and all jails should be subject to open competition, according to a think tank.

The Government would be wrong to limit the role of private companies within prisons to small contracts, such as maintenance and catering, right-wing group Reform said.

Ten out of 12 privately-managed prisons have lower re-offending rates among offenders serving 12 months or more than comparable public sector prisons, a report by the group found.

Researcher Will Tanner, who wrote the report, said: "Twenty years of private prisons have created an effective market which is ready to grow.

"Evidence shows that a greater role for the private sector will advance the 'rehabilitation revolution' which ministers want to deliver."

Private firms have been managing prisons since 1992, but in November last year Justice Secretary Chris Grayling signalled a move away from wholesale privatisation as he decided four prisons, including G4S-run HMP Wolds, should be run by the public sector.

Two contracts to run five prisons - Acklington and Castington, which have since formed Northumberland prison, and three in South Yorkshire - will proceed to the next stage of the competition with an announcement expected next spring.

Mr Grayling said private firms will be brought in to all public prisons to run maintenance, resettlement and catering to save up to £450 million over six years.

Policy groups, including Reform, said the decision amounted to the end of competition for prison management between the public and private sector, although Mr Grayling insisted it did not rule out further prison-by-prison competitions in the future.

The report found 12 out of 12 private jails performed better than the public sector at "resource management and operational effectiveness", while seven out of 12 were better at "reducing reoffending".

However, seven out of 12 public prisons performed better than private jails at "public protection".

Justice Minister Jeremy Wright said: "Reoffending rates across the entire prison estate are too high and we are pressing ahead with major reforms to tackle this unacceptable problem.

"And let's be clear, there has been no U-turn on the use of prison competition.

"The cost of running our prisons is too high and must be reduced.

"The recent competition process identified a new approach for reducing costs and improving services aimed at reducing reoffending at a faster rate involving the private sector."

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Sony Reveals Next-Generation PlayStation 4

Sony has unveiled its PlayStation 4 console at a live-streamed event in New York, and said it will be part of a new "ecosystem".

The console is the company's first major release since the PlayStation 3 went on sale in 2006.

Among other features, it will allow users to stream and play video games hosted on servers. Users will also be able to record their in-game footage and share it via social networks.

Sony said the console is powered by an eight-core processor, giving it the feel of a "supercharged PC".

The console's new controllers feature a touch pad and headphone socket

A new controller was also shown off at the event.

Dubbed "DualShock 4", it will have a touch pad and a "share" button, as well as a headphone socket and a light bar which can be tracked by a camera to detect where the player is - according to lead system architect Mark Cerny.

However, the look of the new console, and its eventual price, were not revealed at the event.

Sony said it is planning to release the console - in some countries at least - during the year-end holiday season.

Andrew House, group chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment, said: "Today marks a moment of truth and a bold step forward for PlayStation as a company.

"Today we will give you a glimpse into the future of play."

Sony purchased US cloud-based gaming company Gaikai for $380m in July. Using that technology, the new console will offer a cloud-gaming service.

Some of the console's first games were also announced at the event, including racing simulator Drive Club and first-person shooter Killzone: Shadow Fall.

The event is seen by many as an attempt to give Sony a head start ahead of Microsoft's expected unveiling of the next Xbox in June - at the E3 video game expo in Los Angeles.

Last time around, the Xbox 360 beat the PlayStation 3 to market by one year.

However the new device arrives amid a decline in video game hardware and software sales. Research firm NPD Group said game sales fell 22% to $13.3bn in 2010.

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Google Share Price Breaks $800 Barrier

Google's stock price has topped $800 (£516) for the first time amid renewed confidence in the company's ability to reap higher profits.

The milestone comes more than five years after Google's shares initially hit $700, but then tumbled as the 2007 financial meltdown sparked global recession.

Its resurgent stock is an implicit endorsement of co-founder Larry Page, who replaced his managerial mentor Eric Schmidt as chief executive in April 2011.

Google's stock has risen by 36% since Mr Page took over.

Most of the company's gains have occurred in the past seven months - a period that has overlapped with a sharp downturn in the stock price of rival Apple.

The iPhone maker's market value has plunged by around $230bn, or 35%, since late September.

But it remains the most valuable US company with a market value of $432bn. Google now ranks third with a value of $266bn.

Tuesday trading saw Google stock climb 1.8% to close at $806.85.

Standard & Poor's Capital IQ analyst Scott Kessler said: "There are probably even going to be people talking whether Google's stock can get to $1,000.

"Never underestimate the excitement that can be caused by a rising stock market and a rising security."

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Tesco: Supermarket Bottom Of Which? Survey

Tesco is the UK's least popular supermarket - and Waitrose is the most liked - according to a new survey.

Waitrose received an overall satisfaction score of 82%, including five-star ratings for its customer service and the quality of its fresh produce.

Meanwhile Tesco scored just 45% - placing it at the bottom of the poll of 11,492 people by consumer watchdog Which?

It also received poor marks for its pricing, store environment, quality of fresh produce and customer service.

Discount supermarkets Aldi and Lidl came second and third best with scores of 74% and 69% respectively, beating some of their bigger rivals such as Morrisons (59%), Sainsbury's (58%) and Asda (53%).

Aldi and Lidl were the only supermarkets to get four-star ratings for their pricing, with 97% of those surveyed saying they both offer good value.

Fourth place went to Marks & Spencer with 68%, while the Co-operative scored just above Tesco with 48%.

Ocado took top spot in the online ranking with 81%, followed by Waitrose (74%), Sainsbury's (71%), Tesco (63%) and Asda (61%).

The poll revealed that consumers' biggest irritation when shopping is not being able to easily compare prices because of different unit measurements, with 37% reporting that this annoyed them.

They also wanted supermarkets to keep special offers simple, with 55% preferring straight discounts ahead of other offers such as petrol vouchers (16%) or buy-one-get-one-free deals (11%).

A Tesco spokeswoman said: "Millions of customers shop regularly with Tesco and we are always looking at ways to improve their shopping experience.

"We have made a £1bn commitment to make Tesco better for our UK customers and since this survey in October 2012, we have had an encouraging Christmas and New Year and are delivering further improvements this year.

The survey was conducted before horsemeat was discovered in products sold as beef, triggering a probe by the Food Standards Agency which has embroiled British supermarkets.

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New 4G Phone Operators Announced By Ofcom

Telecoms watchdog Ofcom has granted permits for more mobile phone firms to operate faster 4G networks.

The four new winners were announced as Hutchison 3G, a division of BT called Niche Spectrum,Telefonica O2 and Vodafone.

Existing 4G operator Everything Everywhere was also given expanded bandwith.

Ofcom said in a statement: "This is expected to lead to faster mobile broadband speeds, lower prices, greater innovation, new investment and better coverage.

"Almost the whole UK population will be able to receive 4G mobile services by the end of 2017 at the latest."

Ofcom said the purpose of the auction was to "promote strong competition in the 4G mobile market".

However new entrants in the sector, including Chinese-owned firms, failed in their bids.

The regulator said the failure of new entrants was simply because their bids were too low.

The auction raised £2.34bn for the taxpayer but the Government had hoped for a total of £3.5bn.

There was a reserve price on the auction of £1.36bn.

Britain's last big mobile phone spectrum auction was in 2000 for 3G services and raised more than £20bn.

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Horsemeat: Nestle Withdraws Products In Scandal

Nestle has become the latest food company to be hit by the horsemeat scandal after it removed beef pasta meals from shelves in Italy and Spain when tests revealed traces of horse DNA.

The Swiss-based firm, one of the world's largest food companies, said it had informed the authorities a week after it had said products under its labels were not affected by the horsemeat scandal.

It withdrew two chilled pasta products - Buitoni Beef Ravioli and Beef Tortellini - in Spain.

Both products tested were found to contain more than 1% horse DNA.

Lasagnes a la Bolognaise Gourmandes, a frozen product for catering businesses produced in France, will also be withdrawn.

A statement from Nestle Europe said: "We are now suspending deliveries of all our finished products produced using beef supplied by a German firm, H.J. Schypke, a subcontractor of one of our suppliers, JBS Toledo N.V.

"Our tests have found traces of horse DNA in two products made from beef supplied by H.J.Schypke.

"The levels found are above the 1% threshold the UK's Food Safety Agency used to indicate likely adulteration or gross negligence.

"We want to apologise to consumers and reassure them that the actions being taken to deal with this issue will result in higher standards and enhanced traceability."

Concerns over horsemeat first emerged in January when Irish authorities found traces of horse in beefburgers made by firms in Ireland and Britain and sold in supermarket chains including Tesco and Aldi.

The scandal then intensified when French firm Comigel alerted Findus this month to the presence of horsemeat in meals it made for the company, which were also on sale in Britain.

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