Category Archives: UK news

Hackers steal customer data from Europe’s largest parking app operator

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Owner of RingGo and ParkMobile says data including parts of credit card numbers taken in cyber-attack

Europe’s largest parking app operator has reported itself to information regulators in the EU and UK after hackers stole customer data.

EasyPark Group, the owner of brands including RingGo and ParkMobile, said customer names, phone numbers, addresses, email addresses and parts of credit card numbers had been taken but said parking data had not been compromised in the cyber-attack.

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Italian woman facing removal from UK despite ‘permanent residency’ card

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Silvana one of potentially thousands who were unaware of need to apply for post-Brexit EU settlement scheme

An Italian environmental technology investor who has lived in the UK for 14 years has discovered she could be removed despite getting a “permanent residency” card after Brexit.

She is one of potentially tens of thousands of EU citizens who were unaware the Home Office changed the rules in 2019 requiring them to apply for a different scheme, called EU settlement.

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King Charles praises ‘selfless’ people who form ‘backbone of society’ in Christmas speech

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Monarch says in his second Christmas Day message that his coronation was ‘a call to us all to serve and care’

King Charles has praised the work of volunteers, calling them a “selfless army of people” who form an “essential backbone of our society”.

In his second Christmas speech, the king said he was delighted that hundreds of volunteers and their representatives attended his coronation in May, saying their presence “emphasised the meaning of coronation itself, above all, a call to us all to serve one another, to love and care for all”.

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Labour to crack down on ‘dodgy’ candy stores in push to revive high streets

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Party says American-style sweetshops – some under investigation for tax evasion – are ripping off public

A Labour government will launch a crackdown on “dodgy” candy stores if it wins the next election, as part of plans to revitalise Britain’s high streets.

There are more than 20 of the US-themed sweet stores on Oxford Street, London, alone. Many of them appeared during lockdown as high-street stalwarts closed down and landlords faced the prospect of long-term empty shops.

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Labour reportedly considering offshoring asylum seekers’ claims

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Keir Starmer mulling ‘detailed plans’ to outsource process overseas as alternative to Rwanda plan

Labour is reportedly considering a scheme that would see asylum seekers’ claims processed elsewhere.

Keir Starmer is mulling “detailed plans” for an offshoring scheme as he seeks to deter Tory attacks on Labour’s alternative to the Rwanda plan, the Times said on Monday.

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‘White Christmas’ declared as Scotland sees snow – but elsewhere it’s 12C

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Snowflakes in Aviemore warrant Met Office certification but mid-Atlantic conditions hand Exeter airport 13.2C

Forecasters have officially declared a “white Christmas” with snow falling across parts of Scotland – after the record for the highest daily minimum temperature for Christmas Day was broken further south.

Snow, sleet and rain moved across parts of Scotland, with Tulloch Bridge and Aviemore recording snowflakes, the Met Office said.

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Health of England’s children at risk from policy inaction on obesity, report finds

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Exclusive: Officially commissioned research lays out effects of shelving anti-obesity pledges

Children in England are at risk of diabetes, heart disease and other serious health problems because ministers have shelved anti-obesity policies until 2025, according to a damning report commissioned by the government.

The independent report says that ultra-processed foods (UPF) and products high in fat, sugar and salt (HFSS) have become “normalised” in children’s diets, with poorer parents powerless to curb them.

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England heads for obesity disaster as minister frets about nanny state

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Government has shelved policies that could have helped to change landscape weighted in favour of unhealthy food options

Less than three weeks into her new role as health secretary, Victoria Atkins left health campaigners aghast when she suggested her approach to tackling obesity would largely focus on dietary advice.

Obesity is a devastating public health problem harming millions of people in the UK that will never be resolved by tips on what to eat and what to avoid. Two in three adults are overweight or obese and the problem costs £100bn a year.

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Over 5,500 unpaid work orders not completed after two years in England and Wales

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Exclusive: Orders should be done within a year of sentence as experts blame ‘chronic understaffing’ in probation service

More than 5,500 unpaid work orders that form part of community sentences have not been completed more than two years after being handed down, with experts blaming “chronic understaffing” in the probation service.

Ordinarily the orders, which can be for between 40 and 300 hours, should be completed within 12 months of sentence. Figures show there are more than 15,100 unpaid work orders not completed in that time in England and Wales,

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Christmas Eve shopper numbers fall amid Sunday trading and cost-of-living crisis

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Footfall was nearly 7% lower than last week and more than a fifth down on 2022 levels

The number of in-person shoppers has fallen on Christmas Eve compared to last year amid Sunday trading hours and the cost-of-living crisis.

Footfall across all UK retail destinations up to 5pm on Sunday was 6.8% lower than last week, and 20.6% lower than 24 December 2022, the latest data from industry analyst MRI Software shows.

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UK sees warmest Christmas Eve in more than 20 years after temperatures hit 15C

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Warmest 24 December recorded in Britain since 1997, with forecast for 13C in south of England on Christmas Day

The UK has experienced its warmest Christmas Eve in more than 20 years.

Temperatures in Heathrow, south-west London, hit 15.3C on Sunday, well above average for the time of year, making it the warmest 24 December since 1997.

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England has ‘twice as many empty homes as families stuck in B&Bs’

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There are 121,327 in short-term housing, while 261,189 homes are empty long-term, say Lib Dems

England has more than twice as many long-term empty homes this Christmas as there are children living in temporary accommodation, the Liberal Democrats have said, calling this a stark indication of a “broken” housing market.

The numbers of families without a permanent home and in short-term housing, whether hotels and B&Bs or temporary rental properties, has hit a record high this year, with the latest statistics showing it now affects 121,327 children, according to data collated by the House of Commons library.

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More than 500,000 under-35s in UK out of work due to long-term illness

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Experts link 44% increase in four years to a growing mental health crisis and underinvestment in health services

More than half a million young people in the UK say they are out of work due to long-term illness, a 44% increase in just four years.

Data from the Office for National Statistics shows that more than 560,000 people aged between 16 and 34 were economically inactive – meaning they were not in work or seeking work – in the first three months of 2023 due to long-term sickness.

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Woman and two dogs killed in suspected hit-and-run crash in Essex

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Met police arrest man after incident in which Marie Theobald was killed while walking dogs in Chigwell

A man has been arrested after a woman and two dogs were killed days before Christmas in a suspected hit-and-run crash in Essex.

Marie Theobald, 48, from Hainault, was walking with two dogs named Riley and Honey on Manford Way, Chigwell, when she was hit by a car, believed to be a white Seat Leon.

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Rwanda bill will ‘get the job done’ and stop small boat crossings, says David Cameron

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Foreign secretary also said Iran was a ‘thoroughly malign’ geopolitical influence

A failure to tackle the issue of small boat crossings in the English Channel would be destructive to people’s faith in politicians and government, David Cameron has claimed.

In comments aimed at rebellious Tory backbenchers unhappy with Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda legislation, Lord Cameron, the foreign secretary, said it was the “best bill to get the job done”.

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Reform UK leader gives ‘guarantee’ that it won’t step aside for Tories at election

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Richard Tice assures senior members of his party in writing that he will not revive Brexit party’s 2019 deal with Conservatives

The leader of Reform UK has given “cast-iron guarantees” to senior members of his rightwing populist party that it will not step aside for the Conservatives at the forthcoming general election.

The Tories were able to win a majority in 2019 after Reform’s previous incarnation, the Brexit party, did not field any candidates against them in return for Boris Johnson’s commitment to leave the EU by 2020 before pursuing a Canada-style trade deal.

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Two teenagers dead after car crash in Northumberland

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Connor Lapworth, 18, and Corey Mavin, 15, have died and three other people are seriously injured after crash in Cramlington

Two teenagers have died and three other people have been seriously injured in a car crash in Northumberland.

Northumbria police said Connor Lapworth, 18, died at the scene and Corey Mavin, 15, suffered head injuries and died in hospital.

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Indian Christians find comfort and joy in church communities across Britain

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And churches used to dwindling congregations are delighted to see numbers boosted by worshippers of all ages

Father Happy Jacob has a reason to be cheerful. When he started St Thomas’s Indian Orthodox Church in Liverpool in 2002, his congregation numbered about 60 families, and stayed at that level for almost two decades.

Then, a few years ago, things began to change. “We have seen a massive increase in families coming to the church,” says Jacob, 48. At his last count, there were 110 families, with worshippers including NHS workers, international students and about 100 school-age children.

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Britain to send patrol ship to Guyana amid Venezuela border dispute

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HMS Trent will take part in exercises with Guyana as tensions over mineral-rich Essequibo region raise anxieties

A Royal Navy patrol ship will be sent to Guyana in a show of British support for the Commonwealth country.

The South American country is in a dispute with Venezuela over a mineral-rich border region.

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The real Santa’s face: ID software sorts Father Christmas from his stand-ins

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The man in red’s distinct visage emerges by algorithm, proving not any old bearded man looks like him

Santa impersonators watch out. Scientists have created a Santa-detection machine and used it to prove what children have been telling adults for generations – that Santa has a unique face which clearly distinguishes him from other elderly bearded men.

Previous research has suggested that children as young as three can identify Santa Claus based on his distinctive appearance.

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