Minor injuries compensation axed

26 November 2012 Last updated at 20:36 ET

Violent crime victims who suffer minor injuries will not get compensation under changes which have come into effect in England, Wales and Scotland.

Victims who suffer injuries including a broken nose, mild concussion, temporary deafness or minor burns will be among those no longer eligible.

Shopworkers' union Usdaw said many retail staff injured in armed robberies and assaults would lose out.

Ministers say the reforms will shave £50m off the annual £200m bill.

However, in 2011/12 the criminal injuries compensation bill rose to about £450m, largely caused by a backlog of payments.

BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw said the reforms to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme - including the scrapping of five payment levels - were the most significant since a sliding scale of payments was introduced to simplify it 16 years ago.

Usdaw said MPs who had voted for the changes should "never again have the gall" to say they put victims first.

In September, in a move hailed by Victim Support as "a turnaround", Justice Minister Helen Grant said she would reconsider the plans after the charity's protests as well as those by MPs and unions.

But when a parliamentary committee met at the start of this month, the unchanged plans were approved by nine votes to seven.

That led Labour to accuse the government of "stacking" the Seventh Delegated Legislation Committee by ensuring people on the government payroll - including four parliamentary private secretaries - turned up to vote.

The Ministry of Justice says it is "dedicated to preserving compensation to the most seriously-injured victims of crime".

"But where less serious injuries have been caused, we believe taxpayers' money is better spent providing support and help rather than what are often small payments well after the crime has been committed," a spokesperson said.

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Economic growth confirmed at 1%

27 November 2012 Last updated at 05:41 ET Continue reading the main story

The UK economy grew by 1% between July and September, latest official figures have confirmed.

Last month, the Office for National Statistics' first estimate showed the surprisingly strong growth, bringing to an end a nine-month long recession.

The Olympic Games helped to boost growth over the summer.

The new figures also showed the economy contracted by 0.1% compared with a year earlier, whereas the previous estimate had shown flat growth.

'Temporary upturn'

An important factor behind the strong growth in the third quarter was consumer spending, which grew by 0.6% - the strongest rate for more than two years.

The services sector grew by 1.3%, unchanged from the ONS' previous estimate, but growth in industrial production was revised down to 0.9% from 1.1%.

The contraction in the construction sector was also revised to show a slightly steeper drop.

The third quarter growth figure was enhanced by comparison with the previous three months, when an extra public holiday as part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations hit growth.

The ONS will revise its growth figures for the third quarter again next month, when it will have a more comprehensive set of data for the UK's economic performance.

Despite the confirmation of strong growth, analysts warned that it may be short lived.

"If anything, the details in the new data further highlight the temporary nature of the upturn," said Chris Williamson at research group Markit.

"Payback is likely in the fourth quarter."

David Owen at investment banking group Jefferies said: "People are generally expecting GDP to have slowed sharply into the fourth quarter on the published figure, or indeed to have actually contracted slightly compared to the third quarter."

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Yasser Arafat's remains exhumed

27 November 2012 Last updated at 06:03 ET

The remains of Yasser Arafat have been exhumed as part of an investigation into how the Palestinian leader died.

Swiss, French and Russian experts were given samples to establish whether his death in Paris in 2004 at the age of 75 was the result of poisoning before the tomb was resealed.

France began a murder inquiry in August after Swiss experts found radioactive polonium-210 on his personal effects.

Arafat's medical records say he had a stroke resulting from a blood disorder.

His widow, Suha, objected to a post-mortem at the time of his death, but asked the Palestinian Authority to permit the exhumation "to reveal the truth".

Sealed tomb

Arafat's body lies in a stone-clad mausoleum inside the Muqataa presidential compound in the West Bank city of Ramallah. The mausoleum was sealed off earlier this month.

Continue reading the main story

At the scene

On a grey day with the threat of drizzle, this event was a bit of damp squib.

For the hundreds of snap-happy journalists lined up outside the presidential compound in Ramallah where Yasser Arafat's cube-shaped mausoleum sits, there was not much to see.

It was shielded from prying eyes by large sheets of blue tarpaulin, so reporters could only guess what was going on behind.

The whole operation was over in a matter of hours. It now seems the investigators did not even have to remove the body from the tomb - scientists were able to take the samples they needed without having to do so.

By midday we were told the tomb had been resealed, with no need for a formal reburial. Any ceremonials appear to have been minimal.

Now there will be a long wait, possibly several months, before the test results come through. They may not be conclusive. There's a possibility the whole thing could be kicked into the long grass.

Palestinians here seem a little indifferent. Most take it as unproven fact that their leader died at Israel's hands. Israel has always denied it.

This has all the ingredients of a murder mystery. But it's difficult to ever see it leading to any prosecutions. And if Israel did kill Yasser Arafat, it's likely it was done with the help of somebody within his close circle.

Palestinian officials told Agence France Presse that only a Palestinian doctor had been allowed to directly touch the remains and remove the samples, but the process was conducted in front of the Swiss, Russian and French scientists, who will carry out tests for polonium-210 and possibly other lethal substances in their respective countries.

It is believed that the investigation could take several months.

Before the exhumation, the head of the Palestinian committee investigating Arafat's death, Tawfik al-Tirawi, said no journalists would be allowed to observe the exhumation.

"Because [of the] sanctity of the symbol and the sanctity of this event, [the exhumation] should not be permitted to be in front of the media," the former Palestinian intelligence chief said.

A reburial ceremony with full military honours had been planned, but this ultimately was not deemed necessary as the body was not removed from the grave during the collection of the samples.

Many Palestinians continue to believe Arafat was poisoned by Israel, which saw him as an obstacle to peace and had put him under house arrest.

There has also been speculation that Arafat was suffering from HIV or cancer at the time of his death.

Israel has strongly denied any involvement in Arafat's death.

An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the BBC: "All the medical files are in the hands of the family or the Palestinian Authority. For some reason they have not released them to this day. Our position has not changed over the years, but the question is why did they wait eight years?"

TV documentary

Arafat, who led the Palestine Liberation Organisation for 35 years and became the first president of the Palestinian Authority in 1996, fell violently ill in October 2004 inside the Muqataa.

Two weeks later he was flown to a French military hospital in Paris, where he died on 11 November.

Continue reading the main story

Arafat: The Swiss claims

• "Unexplained, elevated" level of polonium-210 on Arafat's clothing, keffiyeh and toothbrush
• Highest levels found on items with bodily fluids
• Toothbrush measured 54 millibecquerels (mBq); underwear 180mBq compared with 6.7mBq from another man's specimen underwear
• More than 60% of polonium was not from natural sources

Source: Al-Jazeera TV

In 2005, the New York Times obtained a copy of Arafat's medical records, which it said showed he died of a massive haemorrhagic stroke that resulted from a bleeding disorder caused by an unknown infection.

Independent experts who reviewed the records told the paper that it was highly unlikely that he had been poisoned.

A murder inquiry was launched by French prosecutors in August after an investigation by al-Jazeera TV, working with scientists at the Institute of Radiation Physics (IRA) at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, found "significant" traces of polonium-210 present in samples taken from Arafat's personal effects, including his trademark keffiyeh headdress.

In some cases, the elevated levels were 10 times higher than those on control subjects, and most of the polonium could not have come from natural sources, the scientists said.

But the institute also said that Arafat's symptoms - as described in his medical records - were not consistent with polonium poisoning.

The former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko died of exposure to polonium-210 in London in 2006. The UK authorities have accused Andrei Lugovoi, an ex-KGB officer, of poisoning his tea.

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Work programme misses job target

27 November 2012 Last updated at 06:25 ET

Government figures assessing the success of its welfare-to-work programme show the main target has been missed.

Firms and charities are paid to help find jobs for the long-term unemployed in the hope of helping 2.4m people.

But official figures showed only 3.53% of people found a job for six months or more - missing the 5.5% target.

Ministers said it was "early days" and the programme was succeeding in getting people off benefits and into work.

The figures, which cover the 13 months from June 2011 to July 2012, showed that of the 878,000 people who joined the programme, only 31,000 found a job for 6 months or more.

The Department for Work and Pensions had told providers they should get 5.5% of people on the programme into sustained employment.

'Snapshot picture'

Continue reading the main story

The work programme was part of what ministers called a revolution in welfare "

End Quote

BBC political editor Nick Robinson said failing to hit the target meant "as many unemployed are getting sustainable jobs as if the work programme had never existed".

The DWP said more than half of the jobseekers who started on the programme in June and July 2011 had spent some time off benefits.

Employment minister Mark Hoban said: "It's still early days, but already thousands of lives are being transformed."

"One in four people have been in work, more than half of the early starters have been off benefit and performance is improving.

"Previous schemes paid out too much up front regardless of success but, by only paying providers for delivering results, the work programme is actually offering the taxpayer real value for money.

"Clearly these figures only give a snapshot picture as we're one year in, and the work programme offers support to claimants for two years, but these results are encouraging and something providers can look to build on."

Poorly performing organisations involved in the programme have been given until April to improve their performance.

The Employment Related Services Association, the trade body for the welfare-to-work industry, said 20,000 jobseekers were being helped each month. More than 200,000 have found employment since the scheme's launch, it added.

Labour leader Ed Miliband said the work programme was turning out to be a "miserable failure".

He said: "It is just not working. What we've seen from the government is a failure to reform welfare."

Under the scheme - replacing the New Deal, Employment Zones and Pathways to Work - approved providers in England, Scotland and Wales, mostly private companies, try to find work for claimants on a payment-by-results basis.

Providers can earn between £3,700 and £13,700 per person helped into work, depending how hard it is to give support to an individual, with an initial payment of between £400 and £600.

The government has said it expects the scheme to help 2.4m people back into work over five years.

Joining the work programme is mandatory for people aged over 25 when they have been out of work for a year and under-25s after nine months. Some younger people in certain circumstances, like young offenders, must join after a shorter period of time.

People on some benefits, such as income support and employment support allowance, can join the scheme voluntarily if they meet certain criteria.

Once a person has been referred to the work programme, they remain on the scheme for up to two years.

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Ofsted warns on standards divide

27 November 2012 Last updated at 06:45 ET

Families' chances of having a good local school depend too much on which part of the country they live in, warns England's education watchdog Ofsted.

Chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw, publishing Ofsted's annual report, said this was leading to "serious inequalities" for millions of children.

Ofsted is launching a league table ranking local authorities according to inspectors' ratings of schools.

Sir Michael said: "The inequalities for local children are stark."

Figures published by the education watchdog show that in some areas there is a less than 50% chance of a good or outstanding school - compared with more than 90% in others.

The report also highlighted concerns about the quality of further education colleges, saying that for the second year running, Ofsted did not judge a single college to be outstanding for teaching and learning.

League table

Ofsted's annual report said schools in England were getting better, with 70% of schools now rated good or outstanding compared to 64% five years ago.

An extra half a million pupils were now being in taught in good or better schools, it said, but almost 2.3 million children were still attending a "small minority" of schools that are less than good.

And the gap in standards between authorities facing similar challenges was too wide.

"That's why I intend from January to use Ofsted's new regional structure to inquire further into areas that are performing badly," said Sir Michael.

"We need to find out what is happening and inspect where necessary. We will also work with local areas to support then and help them link up with best practice."

Continue reading the main story

TOP FIVE

• Camden 92%
• Barnet 91%
• Richmond upon Thames 90%
• Sefton 90%
• Trafford 90%

Source: Ofsted, % of pupils attending good or outstanding primary

The report gives the example that a child living in Derby or Doncaster has only half the chance of attending a good or outstanding primary or secondary school compared with a child living in Wigan or Darlington.

It says a parent in Coventry has only a 42% chance of sending their child to a good or outstanding state primary compared to a 92% chance for a parent living in the London borough of Camden and 91% in Barnet.

"There are differences between local authorities with similar demographics," Sir Michael told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"We'll be looking very carefully at what's happening in those local authorities with the same sort of population, with similar levels of deprivation, similar numbers of children on free school meals, where one particular local authority does extremely well and another one doesn't.

"We'll be asking a question - why is it parents in some parts of the country have less than a 50% chance of getting their children into a good primary school where there are other parts of the country where that chance is over 90%?"

Ofsted's rankings illustrate these differences by ranking councils in terms of the inspection judgements made about schools in their areas, including academies which are outside of local authority control.

Academy status

That will increase pressure on local authorities at the bottom of the table.

Teachers' unions also warn that this is likely to be used by the government in a further push for schools to leave local authorities and become academies.

Continue reading the main story

BOTTOM FIVE

• Telford and Wrekin 53%
• Wakefield 52%
• Thurrock 49%
• Derby 43%
• Coventry 42%

Source: Ofsted, % of pupils attending good or outstanding primary

"Naming and shaming... would certainly suit the education department to push all local authorities into the position of converting schools to academies," said Christine Blower, leader of the National Union of Teachers.

David Simmonds, representing the Local Government Association, cautioned that local authorities had diminishing amounts of direct control over schools - because of central government directives and targets and the shift towards academies.

As such, local accountability for schools was now more complex for parents, he argued.

A Department for Education spokesman said: "Sir Michael is right that standards in some local authorities are simply not good enough. There are still too many schools that do not provide a good enough education. We make no apology for introducing reforms to drive up standards in schools.

"The report recognises that sponsored academies - with strong leadership and real expertise - are the best way to turn around struggling schools. That is why we are identifying consistently weak schools and allowing experienced academy sponsors to take them over. Academies have already turned around hundreds of struggling schools and are improving their results at twice the national average."

Labour's shadow education secretary, Stephen Twigg, said: "Today's report shows the results of Labour's education reforms - including academies and better school leadership. There are half a million more children in good or better schools compared thanks to over a decade of investment and reform.

"However, there remains an arc of underachievement which is holding back too many young people. Even in David Cameron's backyard of Oxfordshire, there are too many coasting schools. We need to learn from success stories like Wigan and Darlington to understand why other areas are less successful."

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E.On to pay £1.7m in compensation

27 November 2012 Last updated at 06:54 ET

Energy company E.On has apologised and agreed to pay £1.7m in compensation after it overcharged 94,000 customers following price rises.

Some £1.4m is being paid directly to customers who were overcharged on exit fees. They will receive an average rebate of £14.83 each.

The other £300,000 will be paid into a hardship fund run by charity Age UK.

E.On made errors during a 30-day window that allows customers to switch supplier before a price rise.

During that time, industry rules mean customers on fixed-term deals should not incur an exit fee if they signal their intention to switch supplier.

If they make this intention clear, they should also avoid any higher prices if the switch happens after the price rise comes into effect.

'Positive step'

Regulator Ofgem said that the compensation related to four price rises that occurred between 2008 and 2011. E.On is the only one of the big six energy companies not to have announced a price rise for residential customers so far this autumn.

Continue reading the main story

We are very sorry to have let down some of our former customers and have made clear that we will refund the money plus interest"

End Quote David Bird E.On customer service director

Ofgem said that E.On brought the error to its attention in November and had agreed to compensate customers rather than face an investigation and a potential fine.

Customers who were overcharged have been identified by E.On, the regulator said, and should receive a cheque with their rebate by the end of January. They do not need to contact the energy company.

An Ofgem spokesman said that if it emerged that not all former customers could be sent rebates, their refunds would be added to the hardship fund instead.

The payment includes an 8% interest payment on the amount that they were incorrectly charged.

"Ofgem has put in place protections for consumers so they can get a fair warning if their supplier puts up prices and time to shop around for a better deal," said Sarah Harrison, of Ofgem.

"E.On has accepted it failed to meet these protections. This announcement that E.On will compensate customers is a positive step by the company to put right their mistakes and is welcome."

Rule change call

E.On has apologised and said that the error would not happen again.

"We are very sorry to have let down some of our former customers and have made clear that we will refund the money plus interest. Our systems are being updated," said David Bird, customer service director at E.On UK.

"We have been open in our failure with the energy regulator, Ofgem, and are pleased to have agreed with them how we can put this right and have identified all customers who are due to receive payment from us in January."

Audrey Gallacher, director of energy at watchdog Consumer Focus, said: "This agreement sends a welcome message to the energy industry that not sticking to the rules has repercussions.

"It is positive that E.On worked with the regulator to get this money back to customers who lost out, rather than paying a fine which would go back to the Treasury.

"We want to see new powers for Ofgem to require fines to be paid back to energy customers brought into force as soon as possible, to ensure people can be directly compensated if they lose out when things go wrong."

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Floods continue to threaten homes

27 November 2012 Last updated at 07:03 ET

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St Asaph residents were advised to leave their homes in the early hours

Residents in up to 500 properties in north Wales have been advised to leave their homes after the River Elwy broke its banks - and forecasters say the threat of floods remains in many areas.

An emergency centre has been set up at a leisure centre in St Asaph after water levels overtopped flood defences.

There are two severe flood warnings on the Elwy and about 200 flood warnings in the rest of England and Wales.

In North Yorkshire, more than 50 houses in Pickering are under threat.

There was more heavy rain in northern England and north Wales overnight and there are fears saturated ground could lead to further flooding and travel disruption. But the rain is expected to ease through the day.

In St Asaph, water has entered about 100 homes with levels said to be 2-3ft (60-90cm) in place,

Some residents have been rescued by lifeboats and fire crews after becoming trapped in their homes.

The flooding risk is also affecting the north Wales villages of Abergele, Llanfairtalhaiarn, Llangernyw and Llansannan.

Inspector Mark Davies, from North Wales Police, said: "The Environment Agency tell us water levels are rising and getting worse.

"We haven't had any reports of people in severe difficulty but it has been distressing for people flooded in their own homes."

Residents have also been evacuated from their homes as the threat of flooding increases in Ruthin, 15 miles away, where Denbighshire County Council say up to 400 properties are potentially at risk.

In other developments:

Continue reading the main story

Weather information

From the BBC:

Elsewhere:

• In Cornwall, the A39 at Perranarworthal is closed in both directions because of flooding and a poor road surface. And levels at Cornwall's largest natural lake, lake Loe Pool, are 1m above normal
• Flooding is also continuing to affect East Coast rail routes including between Durham and York, and between Berwick-upon-Tweed and Newcastle. East Coast Trains says there is flooding on the line six miles south of Darlington
• Concerns have been raised that there will be further flooding as the River Severn is expected to reach its peak in Gloucester later but levels in Tewkesbury are said to have stabilised
• The River Ouse in York is also being monitored, with the peak expected to be on Wednesday. The river burst its banks on Monday, affecting riverside buildings, although the situation is said to be less severe than flooding in September
• North Yorkshire County Council estimates 50 roads are closed because of flooding
• The latest Environment Agency data shows 960 homes have suffered flooding since last Wednesday
• Floodgates have gone up in Upton, in Worcestershire, following a £4.5m flood alleviation scheme which was completed in the summer
• Parts of the new £45m defence scheme in Nottingham have been put into action for the first time.

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Environment Secretary Owen Paterson: "The talks are not at crisis point"

Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Environment Secretary Owen Paterson denied talks between the government and insurers about providing affordable premiums in areas at high risk of flooding had "stalled".

The Association of British Insurers had said discussions about extending the existing agreement obliging insurers to provide cover while the government continues to improve flood defences were at "crisis point".

The Environment Agency has 192 flood warnings in force - which say flooding is expected and immediate action is required - up from 185 on Monday night.

There are also 231 less severe flood alerts, which indicate that people should prepare for possible flooding.

The agency said levels in the River Nene in Northamptonshire have "rise significantly".

It warned that "large, slow responding rivers" - particularly the Thames, Trent and Severn - would continue to rise over the next few days. Officials have deployed mobile defences to protect properties in Oxford.

Continue reading the main story

Latest local news, travel and weather

"Groundwater levels in Winterbourne Abbas, Dorset, also continue to rise and could result in flooding of properties and the A35 trunk road," it added.

Two flood warnings for the Scottish Borders have now been lifted by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and there are none in Northern Ireland.

BBC Weather forecaster Philip Avery said that while the rainy conditions were easing there had been a few hours of persistent showers overnight and there was still a risk of flooding.

Continue reading the main story

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The Met Office has issued a yellow "be aware" warning for heavy rain in North East England and Yorkshire and the Humber but conditions are expected to be improved in other areas, he said.

On Monday, closures, delays and safety warnings affected dozens of A-roads, while cancellations and delays also hit some national rail services.

On the roads, some of the worst-hit areas on Monday were in Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Shropshire.

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Syrian attack 'kills 10 children'

26 November 2012 Last updated at 07:00 ET

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Unverified video posted by opposition activists purportedly showed cluster bombs in Deir al-Asafir and rebels in Marj al-Sultan military base

Activists in Syria say a government jet has dropped a cluster bomb on a playground, leaving 10 children dead.

Video posted on the internet showed children's bodies on the ground with their mothers grieving over them.

The children were killed when a MiG fighter bombed a playground in the village of Deir al-Asafir, east of Damascus, opposition activists said.

Intensive fighting has continued around the capital. Rebel fighters captured at least part of an airbase on Sunday.

Further footage of the playground attack showed what appeared to be cluster bomblets on the ground.

In one video, two girls could be seen lying dead in a street while another showed a distraught mother standing, apparently inside a clinic, over her daughter's lifeless body.

In recent months there have been mounting allegations that the Syrian government has resorted to using cluster bombs as the conflict intensifies, although those claims have been denied, the BBC's Jim Muir in neighbouring Lebanon reports.

'Baseless'

Two cluster bombs were dropped on the village, activists said. One man told Reuters news agency that 70 bomblets had been found.

"None of those killed was older than 15 years old," Abu Kassem, an activist in Deir al-Asafir told Reuters.

He said 15 people had been wounded in the attack and denied that rebel fighters were inside the village. They had been operating on the outskirts, he said.

Last month, Human Rights Watch said there had been an increase in online video reports purporting to show evidence of cluster bombs being dropped in the conflict, especially around the town of Maarat al-Numan.

Continue reading the main story

So far, many of those fleeing the civil war have been invisibly absorbed into friends' and relatives' homes. Atma, while distressing enough to witness, is relatively small. But it will probably grow. "

End Quote

The Syrian government said the military did not have such weapons and dismissed the allegations as "baseless".

An unverified report by the Local Co-ordination Committees (LCC), an opposition activist network, put the number of casualties across Syria on Sunday at 117, including 14 children.

Activists believe 40,000 people have died since the start of protests against President Bashar al-Assad's rule in March 2011.

The UN refugee agency says the number of Syrians refugees in neighbouring countries either registered or awaiting registration has reached 442,000. Another 2.5 million are described as internally displaced.

Battle for military bases

Rebel fighters said on Sunday they had captured a military airbase at Marj al-Sultan, not far from Deir al-Asafir, although activists of the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said they had later pulled out.

Amateur video showed a rebel standing beside a wrecked helicopter while a man speaking on the video said a warplane had been blown up.

Although the rebels control areas to the east and north-east of Damascus as well as on the edge of the city, government forces are widely seen as superior in the capital and the Free Syrian Army has been unable to take permanent control of military bases.

A similar rebel attack took place last week on an air defence battalion base at Hajar al-Aswad, south of Damascus, which fighters briefly controlled after a four-day siege.

The rebels have been more successful in holding on to bases in areas of Syria more firmly under their control. Last week opposition sources said they had seized a base at Mayadeen in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor.

They now appear to hold a swathe of territory in the Euphrates valley, from the Iraqi border to the provincial capital of Deir al-Zour.

Unverified videos posted on the internet on Monday showed fighters claiming to be in control of the Tishreen dam on the Euphrates river, further north in Aleppo province. There has been fierce fighting in the area around the dam for several days.

In a separate development, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has criticised a decision by France and the UK to recognise Syria's new opposition coalition as sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people.

"From the point of view of international law, this is absolutely unacceptable," he told French journalists ahead of a two-day visit to Paris, which was starting on Monday.

"A desire to change the political regime of another state by recognising a political force as the sole carrier of sovereignty seems to me to be not completely civilised."

The EU has stopped short of full recognition, describing the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces as "legitimate representatives of the aspirations of the Syrian people."

1. Cluster bombs are usually dropped from a plane and can fly several miles before releasing their load of bomblets.

2. The canister starts to spin and opens at an altitude between 1,000m and 100m, spraying the bomblets across a wide area.

3. Each bomblet is the size of a drink can and contains hundreds of metal pieces. When it explodes, it can cause deadly injuries up to 25m away.

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UBS fined £29.7m for Adoboli case

26 November 2012 Last updated at 06:09 ET

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has fined UBS £29.7m ($47.6m) for failings that led to trader Kweku Adoboli losing £1.4bn.

The fine, the third largest imposed by the FSA, was for "system and control failings" that allowed him to trade in London well beyond authorised limits.

The trader was last week convicted of two counts of fraud and sentenced to seven years in prison.

UBS said it was "pleased that the chapter has been concluded".

The FSA, which conducted the investigation into failings at the bank with its Swiss counterpart, Finma, said there were serious weaknesses at the Swiss bank.

It said in a statement: "UBS failed to take reasonable care to organise and control its affairs responsibly and effectively, with adequate risk management systems, and failed to conduct its business from the London Branch with due skill, care and diligence."

The FSA's director of enforcement and financial crime, Tracey McDermott, said faulty controls had allowed the losses to mount to what was the largest trading loss in the country.

"UBS's systems and controls were seriously defective," she said.

"As a result, Adoboli, a relatively junior trader, was allowed to take vast and risky market positions, and UBS failed to manage the risks around that properly."

'Gambler'

Adoboli, the 32-year-old Ghana-born son of a diplomat, joined UBS in 2003, becoming a trader in 2006.

He worked in UBS's global synthetic equities division (GSE), buying and selling exchange traded funds (ETFs), which track stocks, bonds and commodities.

He was arrested in September last year.

Southwark Crown Court was told that he was "a gamble or two away from destroying Switzerland's largest bank".

The judge said there was "a strong streak of the gambler" in him.

But, during evidence, Adoboli said everything he had done was aimed at benefiting the bank, where he viewed his colleagues as "family".

He said he had "lost control in the maelstrom of the financial crisis", but had been doing well until he changed from a conservative "bearish" position to an aggressive "bullish" stance under pressure from senior managers.

He told the jury that staff were encouraged to take risks until they got "a slap on the back of the wrist".

The fine was set at 15% of the revenue of the division where Adoboli worked and takes account of the revenue generated by the business area where the weak controls occurred.

'Serious deficiencies'

UBS said it had made a number of substantial changes since discovering the losses, including fixing the weakness in its financial reporting.

The bank added it was retraining staff on the importance of risk management and had changed the way it evaluated and compensated employees.

UBS is changing its own structure to make itself a simpler organisation.

The bank's chief executive, Oswald Gruebel, left the company in the aftermath of the scandal.

His successor, Sergio Ermotti, announced a major restructuring last month to run down the large, risky parts of the investment banking division.

UBS said it had fully co-operated with the regulators' investigations and that it accepted their findings and the penalties incurred.

UBS's fine was discounted from the original level of £42.4m for early settlement.

Switzerland's financial regulator Finma said in a statement that it would also check whether UBS had adequate capital backing for its operational risks.

Finma said it had identified "serious deficiencies in risk management controls" and that it would appoint a third party to make sure proper measures were introduced.

UBS has been banned by regulators from making new acquisitions and it also needs to get prior approval from Finma for any new business initiatives.

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Firms help tax evasion flourish

25 November 2012 Last updated at 15:24 ET

A flourishing industry which helps people evade UK tax has been uncovered following an investigation by the BBC's Panorama programme.

One company formation firm said the odds of getting caught by the UK tax authorities are roughly equivalent to winning the lottery.

The programme secretly filmed corporate service providers offering services that would break the law.

Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs says tackling tax evasion is a priority.

Tax evasion costs the UK taxpayer an estimated £4bn a year.

'Sham directors'

Secret filming by the BBC as part of a joint investigation with the Guardian newspaper and the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists identified a number of corporate service providers - firms that specialise in setting up companies both in the UK and abroad - willing to facilitate tax evasion and turn a blind eye to criminal activity.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

What I'm shocked by... is the apparent ease with which you've discovered these people"

End Quote Tristram Hicks Money laundering expert

In one instance, an undercover reporter posing as a businessman with £6m in undeclared income sitting in a Swiss bank account is advised to move his money into a complex structure involving an anonymous foundation in the tax haven of Belize, which he would control in secret.

James Turner of Turner Little in York, which specialises in forming companies, assured the undercover reporter that his company already had 10,000 of these structures up and running with secrecy guaranteed.

"We've had Inland Revenue investigations on clients that have used companies like this... and they haven't got to the money," Mr Turner said during secret filming.

The complicated structure proposed by Mr Turner also involved the use of nominee directors to help keep the undercover reporter's name off company paperwork.

Nominee directors can be legitimately appointed to run companies on behalf of others. But according to James Turner, his nominees would not be running anything at all.

In other words, they would be a sham.

"They won't even know that they are a director, they just get paid," he said, adding that the directors' signatures could be provided simply by using a stamp.

Continue reading the main story

Panorama: Find out more

• Darragh MacIntyre presents Undercover: How to Dodge Tax
• BBC One, Monday, 26 November at 20:30 GMT

Jonathan Fisher QC, one of the UK's leading barristers specialising in white collar crime cases, said that what was being proposed would break the law.

"If this proceeded and the company was set up and it was set up in the way in which it is being discussed, then plainly some very serious criminal offences would be committed."

Those potential offences would be helping to cheat the revenue and launder the proceeds of crime.

Mr Turner denied any allegations of criminal misconduct. Turner Little said it takes its statutory and regulatory obligations seriously but said that once an internal investigation has been completed, if appropriate, it will take action.

Panorama also discovered corporate service providers offering to appoint sham directors to UK companies. UK law states that directors are responsible for the companies they run and should know what those companies are doing.

'Sark Lark'

The use of sham directors was supposed to have been stamped out in the late 1990s after a scandal on the Channel Island of Sark.

In what became known as the "Sark Lark" one islander was discovered to be the director of more than 1,300 companies. Between them, the 600 inhabitants of the island held 15,000 directorships. New laws have reduced that to fewer than 50 posts today.

But the Panorama investigation found that the Sark Lark is not dead - rather it has moved and gone global.

One corporate service provider based in Dubai, Atlas Corporate Services, showed a list of its 19 nominee directors to one of Panorama's undercover reporters.

The programme discovered they had held more than 6,000 UK company directorships. The company involved said there is nothing unlawful in Dubai about the use of nominee professional directors.

'Tip of iceberg'

Panorama also approached other firms posing as the representative of corrupt Indian government figures who wanted to invest in the UK.

Russell Lebe, Managing Director of Readymade Companies Worldwide in Bushey Heath, Hertfordshire, told an undercover reporter that, if approached by the Indian authorities about tax evasion, "we wouldn't give a monkey's".

Despite being told that the fictional clients were earning "commissions" on government contracts that they wanted to move offshore, Mr Lebe said he would be content not to know their identities and even agreed that the undercover reporter could front for them by pretending to be the owner.

"There'll be no emails and nothing in writing to say that anyone else is the owner and it'll all go under your name. Absolutely fine," he told the reporter.

Readymade Companies Worldwide said they would not provide company formation services if they knew or suspected they would be used to launder the proceeds of crime or defraud tax authorities.

As a precautionary measure, they said they have asked a law firm to review their procedures and will provide staff with further training.

Former Metropolitan Police Detective Superintendent Tristram Hicks, a leading expert on money laundering, said: "What I'm shocked by, and concerned by, is the apparent ease with which you've discovered these people.

"It tells you that maybe it is the tip of the iceberg that you have discovered by scratching the surface and that our regulation regime is not catching enough people."

In a statement, HM Revenue and Customs, which regulates the 2,467 registered trust or company service providers in the UK, said most in the industry have nothing to do with criminal activity.

But it did confirm that it has never prosecuted a single corporate service provider for breaching money laundering regulations.

Panorama's Undercover: How to Dodge Tax

BBC One, Monday, 26 November at 20:30 GMT and then available in the UK on the BBC iPlayer via the link above.

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