European Commission finds shoppers on Chinese website very likely to find unsafe items and imposes €200m penalty
EU regulators have fined the Chinese shopping website Temu €200m (£173m) for failing to stop the sale of illegal and dangerous products.
The European Commission imposed the penalty after a 19-month investigation that found consumers were very likely to encounter illegal or unsafe products including baby toys and electronics on the firm’s website.
Continue reading...More than 52,000 people respond to Commons committee’s call for evidence amid criticism of loan terms
Thousands of graduates have told an official inquiry their horror stories and bad experiences relating to student loans, underlining what the chair of an MPs’ committee called massive levels of “frustration and upset”.
Amid an ongoing row over the ballooning cost of degree course debts, more than 52,000 people responded to a call for evidence by the Commons Treasury select committee as part of its inquiry into student loans and the taxation of graduates.
Continue reading...Head of Early Years Alliance says additional charges paid by parents represent ‘cross-subsidy’
Parents of nursery children in England are being charged extra fees to cover for government underfunding of free childcare hours, with some paying thousands of pounds a year for consumables such as food, wipes and nappies, campaigners have said.
The comments came as the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, asked the competition watchdog to investigate hidden extra charges that parents have encountered when trying to access government-funded childcare.
Continue reading...Education secretary asks UK watchdog to look into nursery practices, including non-refundable deposits and add-ons
Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, is ordering a competition review of hidden childcare charges amid concerns parents are being hit with extra charges, despite the government’s flagship expansion of funded childcare hours.
Phillipson has written to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) asking it to examine practices including non-refundable deposits, compulsory add-ons and restrictions attached to government-funded childcare places.
Continue reading...National Audit Office says potential benefits are ‘considerable but uncertain’ while risks are ‘immediate and substantial’
The cost of the government’s £38bn nuclear plant in Suffolk is subject to “significant uncertainty” and may outweigh the benefits for UK households until at least 2064, according to the government’s spending watchdog.
The National Audit Office (NAO) has warned that although the potential benefits of the Sizewell C nuclear plant are considerable, they remain uncertain. The risks, however, are “immediate, substantial and borne by the public”.
Continue reading...Redress to customers for force-fitting devices in homes includes £20m penalty and £70m of debt write-offs
Thousands of British Gas customers who had prepayment meters force-fitted in their homes will between them receive compensation and energy bill debt write-offs worth up to £112m in the biggest energy supplier settlement on record.
Great Britain’s energy regulator found that British Gas forced PPMs on homes that were not keeping up with their bills at the height of the Russian gas crisis, in one of the most complex investigations in Ofgem’s history.
Continue reading...Case attracts widespread attention as example of China balancing enthusiastic adoption of AI with job security
A court in China has ruled in favour of a worker whose company replaced him with artificial intelligence (AI), awarding him more than £28,000 in compensation.
The worker, whose surname is Zhou, joined a tech company in the eastern city of Hangzhou in 2022 as a quality assurance supervisor overseeing large language models used in AI products.
Continue reading...Premium editions of Kids, Wait Till You Hear This! cost up to $250 but some say signatures are unnaturally identical
Liza Minnelli fans who bought signed copies of her memoir are seeking refunds because they believe her signature is fake.
Copies of Kids, Wait Till You Hear This! by the American 80-year-old singer were marketed around the world as “hand-signed collectibles”, with premium editions costing up to $250 (£185).
Continue reading...Fears over a natural disaster or cyber attack are pushing households into contingency planning, Link survey shows
Millions of Britons are “prepping” for a potential “major disruptive event” by keeping a stash of cash at home, stockpiling tinned goods or ensuring they have a battery-powered torch close to hand, new data suggests.
With war raging in the Middle East and Ukraine, extreme weather becoming more frequent, and warnings that the UK’s critical infrastructure is at risk from cyber-attacks and power outages, many people feel the world has become a more dangerous and chaotic place.
Continue reading...Cap of 20mph in towns and cities and 60mph on motorways would cut fuel demand and combat rising prices, IPPR says
Britain should lower speed limits for drivers as part of a package of measures to reduce the impact of the Iran war on consumers, a thinktank has said.
Capping legal speeds at 20mph in towns and cities and 60mph on motorways would help reduce fuel demand and combat soaring oil prices triggered by conflict, according to the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR).
Continue reading...‘Targeted support’ means certain banks and financial institutions can offer free extra help with investments and pensions
Many Britons are daunted by the world of investing, but new City rules mean certain banks and financial institutions can offer free extra help with investments and pensions.
Last month marked the launch of “targeted support”, a new regulated service that permits companies to suggest investments and pension products to customers that might provide a better return.
Continue reading...Greg Jackson argues against costly investments in UK’s power grid that are adding to household bills
The boss of the UK’s biggest energy supplier has suggested that some households would accept an occasional electricity blackout in exchange for much lower energy bills.
A year on from Europe’s largest power outage – which left tens of millions of people in Spain and Portugal without trains, metros, traffic lights, ATMs, phone connections and internet access – the chief executive of Octopus Energy argued against costly investments in the UK’s power grid that are adding to household bills.
Continue reading...Candle-making kits and rubber toys among products recalled after revelation about play sand sold by Hobbycraft
More than 30 children’s toys have been recalled in the UK after the Guardian revealed that play sand sold by Hobbycraft was contaminated with asbestos.
Over the past three months, other children’s products ranging from candle-making kits to stretchy rubber toys have been recalled by retailers including Tesco, Primark, Matalan and M&S after being found to contain the substance.
Continue reading...The Plaza Prizes offered 10 awards in 2025 but some judges say they were not paid, while a number of winners hit back over AI accusations
A competition for new writers that promised a £20,000 prize fund appears to have shut down, leaving winners and judges, including a Booker prize-winning novelist, out of pocket.
Established in 2022, the Plaza Prizes last year offered 10 awards that were judged by the “finest poets and writers in the world”.
Continue reading...Iran war drives demand for solar panels, heat pumps and EVs, with energy bills expected to rise 18% from July
British households are turning to green home energy upgrades in record numbers to try to keep bills down as the Iran crisis sends global oil and gas prices soaring, data from leading energy suppliers suggests.
Figures show demand for solar panels, electric vehicles and heat pumps in Great Britain has leapt since the war began on 28 February, as households brace for a sharp increase in monthly payments when the next energy price cap takes effect in the summer.
Continue reading...Minister says change for plan 2 and 3 loans in England and Wales will ‘protect borrowers’ from impact of global conflict
Millions of graduates will have the interest on their student loans capped at 6% from September as a temporary measure to protect them from the risk of rising inflation driven by war in the Middle East.
Ministers acted after months of criticism over the loans becoming a “debt trap” that often leave graduates in England and Wales paying tens of thousands more than the original loan amount.
Continue reading...At least 432 ebike fires and 147 e-scooter fires recorded in 2025, up 38% and 20% respectively on previous year
Ebike and e-scooter fires in the UK reached a record high last year, an investigation has found, renewing concerns over the use of lithium batteries and unregulated marketplaces.
Fire brigade figures obtained by the Press Association show there were at least 432 ebike fires recorded across the UK in 2025, up 38% from 313 the previous year and more than five times higher than the 84 recorded in 2021.
Continue reading...Levy on inherited farms and family businesses worth £2.5m or more comes into force 6 April
A new inheritance tax regime for UK farms and family businesses comes into force on Monday and will present “significant challenges” for those affected, according to accountants.
In October 2024 the government announced plans to levy inheritance tax on farms – prompting an outcry in many quarters.
Continue reading...NASUWT says full entitlement should be increased to 26 weeks and paternity pay also improved
Full maternity pay for teachers across the UK should be increased to 26 weeks to help stem the exodus of women in their 30s from classrooms, a union leader has said.
Matt Wrack, the general secretary of the NASUWT teachers’ union, said it was a “national scandal” that so many teachers who quit said inadequate maternity support was one of the reasons.
Continue reading...Bank holiday traffic predicted to peak on Thursday, as petrol and diesel prices surge from fallout of Iran war
UK drivers are being urged to look for the cheapest petrol and “to fill up as usual” as travellers prepare to make 21.7m journeys on what is expected to be the busiest Easter on the roads in four years.
The average price of a litre of unleaded petrol rose by 20p in March, from 132.83p on the 1st to 152.83p on the 31st, raising concerns about the cost of filling up for Easter journeys. The higher fuel prices have been triggered by rising oil prices as a result of the US-Israel war against Iran.
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