Long-Term Shift Work Ages Brain, Study Finds

Working shifts long-term has an ageing effect on the brain impairing the ability to think and remember, according to research.

A study found changing shift patterns "chronically impairs cognition", and even had potential safety implications.

The scientists, who included British researchers from the University of Swansea, said the problems increased with the length of time people worked shifts.

After 10 years of rotating shift work the association became "highly significant".

A decade or more working rotating shifts led to a loss of brain function equivalent to 6.5 years of age-related mental decline, said the researchers.

And while stopping shift work led to gradual recovery, this took at least five years.

The scientists believe disruption of the body clock, which is based on natural day and night cycles, may cause stresses that may affect brain functioning.

Other studies have linked vitamin D deficiency due to reduced exposure to sunlight to poorer mental ability.

Writing in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine, the international team led by Dr Jean-Claude Marquie, from the University of Toulouse, France, concluded: "Shift work chronically impairs cognition, with potentially important safety consequences not only for the individuals concerned, but also for society."

The scientists assessed more than 3,000 workers from southern France who had their mental abilities tested on three occasions over a 10-year period.

Those taking part were aged 32, 42, 52 and 62 at the time of the first test in 1996.

Around a fifth had worked a shift pattern that switched between mornings, afternoons and nights.

Shift workers had lower average scores for memory, processing speed and overall brain function than those working normal office hours.

Compared with people who had never worked rotating shifts, participants employed this way for 10 or more years had lower overall thinking and memory scores.

The researchers said: "Measures should be considered that mitigate the impact that prolonged exposure to shift work has on cognitive abilities, including switching to normal day work."

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Holiday Pay Ruling Threatens Big Business Bill

By Poppy Trowbridge, Consumer Affairs Correspondent

A ruling by the Employment Appeals Tribunal, the UK's top employment law court, is set to determine whether businesses face a big bill for backdated holiday pay.

The cases before the tribunal involve two engineering companies, Hertel and Bear Scotland.

Workers for these companies claim their holiday pay was less than it should have been because their employers did not factor in voluntary overtime completed in the period prior to time off.

Holiday pay is averaged from the basic wage ahead of the time off and currently does not include what's earned in overtime, or commission.

A case being heard later in the year will look at whether commission should also be factored into rates of holiday pay.

While the issue could still stay tied up in European and UK courts for years to come, but some of the high streets bigger business names have begun to prepare for a payout.

John Lewis reviewed its policies this summer, and set aside £40m to reimburse workers.

The Department for Business says voluntary overtime should not be included in holiday pay and it recognises the potential impact on employers.

A spokesperson from the department said, "We understand the deep concern felt by many employers and have intervened in the Employment Appeal Tribunal cases to make our views clear."

Business groups are calling on the Prime Minister to make this employment policy a priority.

Employers are worried about the cost of backdating the ruling to 1998 - when Brussels put in employment restrictions.

Simon Walker from the Institute of Directors, said: "The holiday pay timebomb could have a hugely detrimental impact on businesses up and down the country.

"It is not an exaggeration to say that some small businesses could end up being wiped out if employers, who have acted compliantly and in good faith, face underpayment claims backdated as far as 1998."

The EU's Working Time Directive took effect in 1998.

Employment solicitor, Jessica Learmond-Criqui, said, "If one wants to be a good employer and is using good practice, one would want to be collaborative with employees and reach some sort of agreement to settle any back claims so that you've got certainty because certainty is so important for business."

Barry Smith, legal officer of the GMB union, said: "We hope the ruling will clarify the elements to be included in the calculation of holiday pay.

"For many workers, overtime, shift payments, unsociable hours payments and other allowances are currently excluded from their holiday pay and they should be included."

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JPMorgan Chase Reveals For-Ex Probe Provision

JPMorgan Chase has raised to almost $6bn (£3.8bn) the sum it has set aside to cover legal proceedings as the US Justice Department investigates its foreign-exchange business.

It announced the probe in a regulatory filing on Monday night and said it focused on its spot foreign-exchange trading activities and controls.

The largest bank in the US said it was cooperating with the investigations and was in talks with the justice department and civil enforcement authorities, but that there was "no assurance that such discussions will result in settlements."

Allegations that foreign exchange markets were manipulated have resulted in a focus on whether traders colluded via online chatrooms to set rates.

Some 40% of world's foreign exchange trading is done in London.

The Serious Fraud Office and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) are among world bodies also conducting rigging investigations.

A range of individuals and banks are the subject of the inquiries.

Earlier this year, the FCA's chief executive Martin Wheatley said the allegations were "every bit as bad as they have been with Libor."

Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays and HSBC collectively set aside more than £1bn in their latest financial statement to cover the foreign exchange allegations.

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Millions To Receive New Tax Payments Summary

Millions of taxpayers will receive a new annual tax payments summary from this week under a scheme introduced by Chancellor George Osborne.

Some 16 million Pay As You Earn (PAYE) taxpayers will receive the summaries in the post, which set out exactly how much they pay into the Exchequer.

Mr Osborne announced the personalised summaries - which will also set out how taxpayers' money is spent - as part of his 2012 Budget.

The statements will be delivered in the post over the next seven weeks.

Eight million people who complete self-assessment returns will also be able to access their statements online.

Mr Osborne said: "I promised that taxpayers would know much more about how much direct tax they pay and how that money is spent.

"Now we're delivering on that promise by giving 24 million taxpayers a new personal tax summary.

"It is a revolution in transparency and it will show how hard-working taxpayers have to pay for what governments spend."

Labour's Shadow Treasury Minister Shabana Mahmood said: "This Government's record on tax is giving millionaires a huge tax cut while everyone else pays more.

"Families and pensioners are paying more in higher VAT, but that tax isn't part of these statements.

"By next year families will be £974 a year worse off because of tax and benefit changes since 2010."

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New Law Plan To Tackle Mobile Phone Blackspots

Mobile telephone users could soon be able to talk to their friends even when they enter a signal blackspot, if proposed new legislation goes ahead.

Culture Secretary Sajid Javid wants to change the law to force networks to allow customers to switch providers when their phones cannot find a signal.

It has been estimated that a fifth of Britain suffers from an unreliable mobile phone signal.

The Government is expected to start a consultation process on the reforms this week.

It follows the failure of the 'big four' phone operators - Vodafone, O2, EE and Three - to reach an agreement on improving reception in areas where it is poor.

In most of the areas, at least one or two of the networks have sufficient coverage for people to receive a signal.

Mr Javid is understood to believe that the companies should be forced to allow 'roaming' between networks to ensure that everyone can receive a signal regardless of which operator they are with.

Currently, customers who have contracts with one network cannot make calls, send text messages or transfer data using another network.

Yet, whenever a customer travels abroad, they are able to use any network their operator has an agreement with.

A Whitehall source told The Daily Telegraph: "We want to eradicate this situation of partial not-spots.

"There is expected to be a consultation in the coming days and this could include a legislative option. If these companies do not change, we might force them to change."

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Thousands To Benefit From Rise In Living Wage

By Katie Spencer, Sky News Reporter

Around 35,000 people are set to benefit from a 20p rise in the UK living wage, but more than five million people are still earning below its hourly basic rate of £7.85.

Care worker Perrine Roland told Sky News about the struggles she used to have "living in poverty" on the national minimum adult wage of £6.50.

She said: "Sometimes, at the end of the month, I wouldn't have enough money for food so I would have to ask people to help me."

Today her current employer, Penrose Care, pays her the living wage.

It is one of more than 1,000 employers to adopt the voluntary rate.

"Now I'm living in a very nice house share. I have my own room and it's really improved my standard of living," she said.

Robert Stephenson-Padron, the managing director of Penrose Care, says his company's decision to adopt the wage is about "respecting the humanity of our workers".

He insists there are benefits for both employee and employer.

"We've had extremely low staff turnover, we've got exceptional care workers, and that's really flowed through into the quality of care we provide."

The number of companies signed up to pay the living wage has more than doubled this year. It includes firms like Google, Barclays and food giant Nestle.

Campaigners have targeted chains like Ritzy Cinema, Tesco and Amazon for not signing up.

Bex Hay, from Amazon Anonymous, believes employers must face up to how people are struggling.

"A lot of workers talk about earning 1p over the minimum wage," she told Sky News.

"That doesn't allow them to meet costs of raising family, paying rent and all their bills. They have to work a lot of overtime, lots of seven days a week, long hours, it's demoralising and degrading."

The argument from small businesses is that, given the UK's sluggish economy, they would struggle to pay more than the minimum wage of £6.50 an hour.

However, campaigners are adamant that figure no longer reflects the real cost of living.

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BBA: New Oversight Will Hurt Smaller Banks

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

Smaller lenders would be hit by new rules heralding the world's toughest oversight regime for senior bankers, according to the industry's main City-based lobbying groups.

The warning is contained in a confidential paper submitted on Friday to UK watchdogs ahead of sweeping reforms that will include the threat of seven-year prison terms for directors of failed banks.

In a joint response to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), the British Bankers' Association (BBA) and Association for Financial Markets in Europe (AFME) said that smaller banks would suffer disproportionately high costs in order to comply with the new supervisory framework.

"Coupled with the existing funding, capital and payment access disadvantages already suffered, these new overheads will act as a further barrier to small banks which have fewer senior executives amongst whom responsibilities can be shared, reducing their ability to provide challenge and competitive alternatives in the UK retail and small business market," the lobby groups said.

Their submission, a copy of which has been obtained by Sky News, contains several other objections to the FCA and PRA proposals, including:

:: A suggestion that non-executive directors of banks would lose their independence and begin "man-marking" their full-time colleagues if they are covered by the same rules.

The response said: "The proposed regime could potentially alter the current nature of NED and executive director relationships, and impact the current collaborative and challenge-based board decision-making processes as individual NEDs seek to protect against their individual personal liability."

That warning comes weeks after Sky News revealed that two directors of HSBC's UK subsidiary were quitting in protest at the new rules, which will come into effect next year.

:: A concern that the FCA would have jurisdiction over the overseas employees of UK-based banks even when individuals have no direct connection with UK clients or a realistic possibility of causing harm to a UK-regulated firm.

:: A plan to discontinue the current FCA register of banking industry employees should be dropped because it "will have a negative effect on standards across the industry, in part because of a reduction in transparent (for the industry, consumers and regulators) of many individuals' conduct history".

:: Rejecting the idea that chairmen of banks should not be solely responsible for ensuring that whistleblowers are protected from detrimental treatment.

Regulators are likely to be particularly sensitive to the complaint about higher costs being imposed on smaller lenders following efforts led by George Osborne, the Chancellor, and Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, to pave the way for a new group of "challenger banks".

The new framework has emerged in the wake of pressure on regulators to toughen penalties in the wake of the financial crisis and subsequent trading scandals, including Libor and foreign exchange benchmarks.

Six banks are expected to pay well over £1bn to UK regulators alone to settle the forex issues, with an announcement expected next month.

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Energy Bills: UK Gas Prices Hit Record Low

UK wholesale gas prices have hit a record low, piling more pressure on energy firms to explain why household bills have not been slashed.

The latest fall in raw costs - for November and December delivery - has resulted in a 23% fall over the year so far though bills have remained largely static.

The latest drop was a response to Ukraine and Russia signing a deal to end the threat of supplies being choked off.

The deal will see Moscow resume gas flows over the winter despite their continuing sovereignty row.

The agreement also guarantees delivery to the EU. Russian gas makes up approximately 15% of UK supply.

Raw energy costs, including oil too, have been tumbling in recent months - with Brent Crude losing 25% of its value since June on the back of weaker demand as the world's economic recovery shows signs of easing.

The energy regulator Ofgem told Sky News this week it was seeking an explanation from household suppliers on why they had not passed on to customers the significant falls in wholesale costs.

So-called 'Big Six' firms responded to today's development by insisting that bills reflected long term gas costs not short term pricing.

Companies have recently been tinkering with their offerings, taking their lowest annual tariffs below an average £1,000, but are yet to signal any major cuts to bills despite their wholesale costs diving by almost a quarter during 2014.

Industry body Energy UK said: "There are good deals on the market for customers shopping around and looking to fix their payments.

"Wholesale prices are just part of the bill and, although reduced pressure on the wholesale gas market is good news in the long term, companies buy energy days, weeks, months - even years - in advance to protect customers from sudden changes in costs, and will have bought gas when prices were higher."

Energy firms must use either the wholesale market or a contract with an electricity generator to purchase their energy, which is then delivered to households.

But some suppliers are also part of companies that generate their own energy, so they effectively sell energy to themselves - a situation that has led to calls for greater transparency on profits by splitting generation and supply businesses.

Reported profit levels have recently fallen back to levels not seen since 2009 and companies have consistently argued that their profits are fair and bills reflect not only the timing of their raw gas purchases and hedging strategies but also and high investment costs.

National Grid's latest Winter Outlook report warned that spare capacity was at its weakest level for seven years - a result of several factors including the failure to keep pace with power station closures and unscheduled plant outages.

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RBS Grows Profit But Sets Aside Further £780m

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has set aside a further £780m to cover the costs of conduct issues, including the PPI mis-selling scandal.

The news was released alongside its third-quarter results which demonstrated that the bank's recovery was continuing to build despite the burden of extra provisions for past mistakes.

RBS said it was taking a £400m charge in anticipation of regulatory action over the alleged manipulation of foreign exchange markets - following a similar move by rival Barclays 24-hours earlier.

It added £100m to its bill for PPI - taking the total to £3.3bn - citing "higher than expected reactive complaint volumes."

The bank, which is 80% owned by the taxpayer after its rescue during the financial crisis, said its profits for the third quarter were up to £1.27bn, compared with a loss of £634m in the same period last year.

It is the first time the bank has reported a profit for three quarters in a row since its bailout.

RBS also confirmed it was retaining Ulster Bank following a strategic review of the business.

Chief executive Ross McEwan said: "In February I placed trust at the heart of my new strategy for our bank.

"We have taken the first steps towards that goal, with early progress in making RBS simpler, clearer and fairer.

"We are reducing costs, and are on track to achieve our capital targets.

"UK and Ireland are showing signs of growth, and impairment trends are significantly better than we had anticipated at the start of the year.

"We have confirmed today that Ulster Bank remains a core part of our bank. We have a good market position and believe that, with investment, Ulster Bank can deliver attractive shareholder returns in the future.

"But we know we still have a long list of conduct and litigation issues to deal with and much, much more to do to restore our customers' trust in us."

The RBS share price rose 3% in early trading on the FTSE 100 in the wake of the update.

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RBS Grows Profit But Sets Aside Further £780m

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has set aside a further £780m to cover the costs of conduct issues, including the PPI mis-selling scandal.

The news was released alongside its third-quarter results which demonstrated that the bank's recovery was continuing to build despite the burden of extra provisions for past mistakes.

RBS said it was taking a £400m charge in anticipation of regulatory action over the alleged manipulation of foreign exchange markets - following a similar move by rival Barclays 24-hours earlier.

It added £100m to its bill for PPI - taking the total to £3.3bn - citing "higher than expected reactive complaint volumes."

The bank, which is 80% owned by the taxpayer after its rescue during the financial crisis, said its profits for the third quarter were up to £1.27bn, compared with a loss of £634m in the same period last year.

It is the first time the bank has reported a profit for three quarters in a row since its bailout.

RBS also confirmed it was retaining Ulster Bank following a strategic review of the business.

Chief executive Ross McEwan said: "In February I placed trust at the heart of my new strategy for our bank.

"We have taken the first steps towards that goal, with early progress in making RBS simpler, clearer and fairer.

"We are reducing costs, and are on track to achieve our capital targets.

"UK and Ireland are showing signs of growth, and impairment trends are significantly better than we had anticipated at the start of the year.

"We have confirmed today that Ulster Bank remains a core part of our bank. We have a good market position and believe that, with investment, Ulster Bank can deliver attractive shareholder returns in the future.

"But we know we still have a long list of conduct and litigation issues to deal with and much, much more to do to restore our customers' trust in us."

More follows...

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