Fracking: More Protection For National Parks

Fracking will be allowed in national parks and areas of outstanding beauty only in "exceptional circumstances", ministers say, as new bidding for shale exploration licences opens.

The policy is part of new guidance published by Government which is aiming to offer up vast swathes of Britain for fracking.

The Government has committed to going "all out for shale", claiming development of the gas and oil resource is needed to improve energy security, and boost jobs and the economy.

But opponents say the high-pressure injection of water risks polluting water supplies, damaging the environment and causing minor earthquakes, and argue further fossil fuels should not be extracted due to climate change.

Areas licensed for oil/gas exploration. Pic: Google

Business and energy minister Matthew Hancock said: "The new guidance will protect Britain's great National Parks and outstanding landscapes, building on the existing rules that ensure operational best practices are implemented and robustly enforced.

"Ultimately, done right, speeding up shale will mean more jobs and opportunities for people and help ensure long-term economic and energy security for our country."

Where an application in National Parks is refused and the developer launches an appeal, Communities Secretary Eric Pickles will consider whether to make the final decision himself to ensure the policy is being properly applied.

But Greenpeace campaigner Louise Hutchins warned: "Eric Pickles' supposed veto power over drilling in National Parks will do nothing to quell the disquiet of fracking opponents across Britain.

"Ministers waited until the parliamentary recess to make their move, no doubt aware of the political headache this will cause to MPs whose constituencies will be affected."

Friends of the Earth energy campaigner Tony Bosworth said: "Today the risk of fracking has spread. This threat to the environment and public health could now affect millions more people.

"Those who thought that fracking would only happen in other places will now worry about it happening on their doorstep."

The shale exploration licences which can be applied for from now provide the first step to start drilling, but do not give an absolute agreement to drill.

Planning permission, permits from the Environment Agency and agreement from the Health and Safety Executive will be required for further drilling.

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Govt Figures: Property Price Freeze In June

The average price of a home in England and Wales remained flat in June compared to the previous month, according to Land Registry figures.

There was no change month-on-month when the average was taken across all regions.

The Land Registry said the biggest regional rise in June was in the West Midlands - up 1.9% - while the largest fall was in Yorkshire and the Humber where the figure dropped 1.3%.

The potential London property bubble has also apparently been stopped, with the capital only recording a 0.1% price increase during June.

Average property prices across England and Wales are 6.4% higher than a year ago, which has taken typical home values to £172,011.

House price comparison since 2007 in the UK and London

Despite the June cooling for the capital, the Land Registry said that the average property in London was up 16.4% in the last year.

The data also shows the construction boom continues in the residential sector.

The report said that during April the number of completed house sales in England and Wales increased 29% to 66,659, compared with 51,022 in April 2013.

The report by the Land Registry also found that the number of properties sold in England and Wales for more than £1m in April increased by 39% to 1,028 - from 740 in April last year.

The data comes as a survey by mortgage lender Halifax found that 70% of British adults predict the average UK house price will rise over the next year.

The number of people who said rising property prices will be a barrier to buying rose by 6 points to 35%.

The Land Registry data supports recently released statistics from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on London.

In early July the ONS said that property prices in London rose 20.1% in the 12 months to May to £492,000, compared with a rise of 7.3% across the rest of England and Wales.

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Smartphone Costing Just £26 Launched In India

A smartphone is set to take on the iPhone and Samsung Galaxy at a fraction of the cost - just £26.

The Karbonn A50S has a touchscreen display, front and rear cameras, and a dual phone number function.

So far, it has only been released in India but Britons can order the device online and have it delivered to the UK.

Because it is so cheap, there is no duty to pay.

It can be used on most UK networks with a pay-as-you-go Sim card.

The phone runs on Android, the Google-owned operating system, and features Google Maps and Gmail.

The device has a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor and 256MB RAM, plus 512MB internal storage.

By comparison, the iPhone 5S and Samsung Galaxy S5 both cost £549 in the UK.

However, they do have significantly higher memory and storage capabilities.

Karbonn is not the only firm to try to enter the budget smartphone market.

In April French firm Wiko launched a £60 phone.

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GSK Boss Says Pharma Giant May Be Split Up

Drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has revealed a possible spin-off of its consumer healthcare division.

Chief executive Sir Andrew Witty said the carve up may occur if it offered more value as a standalone company.

It comes following an announcement in April that GSK sealed a £4.2bn joint venture deal with Swiss company Novartis, combining their consumer healthcare arms.

Sir Andrew told the Financial Times that the transaction strengthened the businesses and that the new structure would create more options in the long run.

However, despite the recent deal, he admitted he was "willing to accept" that the future may be more financially viable with standalone companies.

GSK's former China boss was embroiled in bribery scandal

GSK is currently enduring a bribery scandal in China.

Investigators claim the country's former head, Mark Reilly, knew of sales staff bribing doctors and hospitals to use its products.

The scandal deepened after a sex tape involving Mr Reilly emerged during an ongoing probe.

Two weeks ago, authorities in China issued formal charges against a British investigator for the company and his Chinese-American wife.

Peter Humphrey and his wife Yu Yingzeng were charged with illegally obtaining and selling private information, according to China's state news agency Xinhua.

The company has also been implicated in alleged malpractice in Iraq and Poland.

Last week GSK also issued a profits warning, in part due to poor sales of its asthma medicine.

It  reported that operating profits fell 10% to £2.2bn in the first half of its financial year, with sales deteriorating by a worse-than-expected 13% in the second quarter alone.

The company blamed weak demand for its lung drugs in the US and the effects of a strong pound on currency exchanges.

The company has now been forced to cut its performance forecast for the full year.

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Former CBI Chief To Aid Osborne Markets Probe

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

A trio of heavyweight figures including a former head of the CBI will this week be appointed to scrutinise a Government-led probe into financial markets launched in the wake of a string of major trading scandals.

Sky News can reveal that Sir Richard Lambert, who ran Britain's biggest employers' group until 2011, is to be an independent member of the Fair and Effective Markets Review, which was disclosed by George Osborne, the Chancellor, in June.

Sir Richard will be one of three independent members of a practitioners' panel to be chaired by Elizabeth Corley, chief executive of Allianz Global Investors, one of the world's biggest fund managers.

The other independent members, who will examine the panel's work, will be Gay Huey Evans, a former Barclays executive and one-time chairman of the International Swaps and Derivatives Association; and Jonathan Moulds, who previously ran the European operations of Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

The Bank of England is expected to announce their involvement in the next few days, according to a person close to the situation.

Sir Richard's involvement comes just weeks after he recommended the creation of a new body to improve standards in the UK banking industry in an attempt to restore trust in it.

He and the other independent members will oversee the work of a group of serving City executives whose input is seen by the Treasury as crucial to restoring the international reputation of London's financial markets.

Mark Carney and George Osborne at the Mansion House in June

A number of sub-groups will be formed to examine different areas of financial sector activity, with the international competitiveness of the UK likely to be an important preoccupation for those involved.

Major banking groups have been hit by massive fines during the last two years, dealing a blow to the industry's efforts to rehabilitate its image in the aftermath of the global financial crisis.

Lloyds Banking Group, which is part-owned by UK taxpayers, is expected to announce on Monday that it is to pay more than £200m for its role in the Libor rate-rigging affair.

Banks and other financial institutions have also faced penalties for misconduct in setting benchmark prices for commodities and product mis-selling, while a major inquiry into fraud in foreign exchange markets is expected to result in huge fines later this year.

Among the objectives of the new investigation will be to inform the broader international debate about trading practices.

The Chancellor is determined to be viewed as a hardliner on City miscreants, and has already said that he wants to make the manipulation of financial benchmarks a criminal offence.

In his Mansion House speech in June, Mr Osborne said the Fair and Effective Markets Review would form an important element of moves to improve conduct in banking.

"The integrity of the City matters to the economy of Britain. Markets here set the interest rates for people's mortgages, the exchange rates for our exports and holidays, and the commodity prices for the goods we buy.

"I am going to deal with abuses, tackle the unacceptable behaviour of the few and ensure that markets are fair for the many who depend on them."

Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England, said the probe would help the City to "build true markets...that are open and transparent, where access extends beyond a privileged few, and where all who wish to trade have common information and commonly accessible prices".

The review will also be jointly led by the Financial Conduct Authority, whose chief executive, Martin Wheatley, said: "Confidence and trust are critical to financial markets – and robust, reliable benchmarks are the bedrock of market integrity.

"I welcome this review, which will ensure that key markets operate with the highest standards of integrity."

The Treasury and Bank of England declined to comment on the names of those involved in the review.

None of the independent members of the practitioners' panel could be reached for comment.

The review is expected to report back by the end of summer next year.

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Ryanair Q1 Profit Soars From Easter Boost

Ryanair has set out plans for expansion in Europe after more than doubling its first quarter earnings.

Shares at the no-frills rose 5% following the announcement that revenues rose 11% to €1.34bn (£1.06bn).

Profit during April, May and June soared 152% compared with the same time last year.

In afternoon trading shares in Ryanair were still up 3.5% on the day.

But, Europe's biggest budget airline did acknowledge a slight distortion with the timing of Easter, which fell within that period this year but didn't in 2013.

With fares rising and costs falling the no frills airline has raised its profits forecast for the year.

Full year earnings are now expected at around €635m (£513m), up from €600m (£475m).

Passenger numbers also rose 4% to 24.3 million in the same period.

Chief executive Michael O'Leary said four new bases including Athens, Brussels, Lisbon and Rome were "performing strongly" with new bases due to open this winter in Cologne, Gdansk, Warsaw and Glasgow.

Mr O'Leary added: "We are overrun with growth offers from primary European airports whose incumbent flag and regional carriers continue to cut capacity and traffic."

Ryanair has also said that it plans to increase capacity this winter by 8% and build more business-friendly routes.

It comes as rivals Air France-LKM and Lufthansa issued profit warnings for the end of 2014.

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Crashes Push Up Airline Insurance Costs

The global airline industry faces the prospect of huge insurance premium increases, following a spate of crashes.

The warning comes as the sector is forecast to see annual losses hit more than £1.2bn - the most expensive year since the 9/11 attacks in 2001.

The insurance industry has warned of huge premium increases on aircraft cover, as war is now seen as a threat to commercial flight paths.

On July 17, Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was downed by an apparent missile attack over eastern Ukraine, killing almost 300 people.

Recent conflicts in the Middle East and parts of Africa have increasingly turned underwriters' attention to "war" insurance policies.

On July 24, an Air Algerie flight AH5017 crashed in a remote region of Mali, close to the border with Burkina Faso, with the loss of 116 lives.

And the day before, a TransAsia Airways flight in Taiwan crashed in bad weather, killing 48 passengers.

Nearly 300 people died when MH17 was shot down in eastern Ukraine

Mystery still surrounds the disappearance in March of Malaysia Airlines MH370, which is believed to have crashed in the Indian Ocean with 239 people on board.

Airlines face sudden policy changes in relation to hostile attacks and could include cover cancellations with just days' notice.

The Financial Times said that some companies are demanding exact flight path details and may reconsider cover for flights over areas of conflict.

David Learmount, of Flightglobal, told Sky News that consumers are not likely to be hit by insurance increases, but said they may be affected by changing flight paths and fuel prices.

He said: "If airlines are now flying around Ukraine for example, instead of across the country, the plane will use more fuel and that might impact the cost of flights."

Although some airlines were flying over Ukraine prior to the loss of MH17, carriers are now avoiding the country.

Similar concerns have hit other regions. Emirates Airlines has stopped flying over Iraq and Mr Learmount said "it will lengthen journey time and therefore increase fuel consumption".

As the aviation industry is hit with insurance hikes, Malaysia Airlines is expected to see the highest increases, amid reports that it may seek to rebrand itself after losing the two aircraft this year.

Lloyd's of London, the world's oldest insurance market, said it expects to see a bill running into hundreds of millions of pounds this year due to recent airline disasters.

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Delays Expected Over Passport Staff Strike

Would-be travellers waiting for new passports are at risk of further delays as Passport Office staff strike.

Members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) have walked out over staff shortages and pay issues, dating as far back as 2010.

The Home Office has criticised the union for the timing of the strike, saying it could affect people's summer holidays.

Last month, it redeployed hundreds of staff to deal with a backlog of 30,000 applications, with some people waiting up to two months for passports that are meant to be processed within three weeks.

It said that about 360,000 passport applications are currently going through the system.

A worker revealed the scale of the passport processing backlog in June

Appearing before a committee of MPs in early July, Passport Office chief executive Paul Pugh said 170,000 passports were being issued each week, and he expected the number to increase by 10,000 a week "over the summer".

The Passport Office said it had faced the highest demand in applications for the last 12 years.

But PCS general-secretary Mark Serkwotka said: "The staffing crisis in the Passport Office has been obvious for everyone to see and it shouldn't have taken a committee of MPs to force the chief executive to meet us to discuss it.

"We are still a long way off getting a commitment from the agency that it will work with us to put the proper resources in place to ensure these backlogs do not reoccur year after year."

In June, the Passport Office boss admitted there are 480,000 passport applications "outstanding", as union representatives said the agency had "lost control" of the backlog.

Mr Pugh told the Home Affairs Select Committee they had received 3.6 million passport applications since January this year, which was significantly higher than usual.

The passport backlog controversy went viral on social media in June, after a worker posted pictures of the scale of the delay in the Liverpool office.

Home Secretary Theresa May then suggested the Passport Office may be brought under the control of Home Office ministers.

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Microsoft 'Under Investigation' In China

Microsoft's China offices have been subjected to unexpected visits from state officials as part of a reported "investigation" into its affairs.

The world's largest software company did not give a reason for the visits, but said it was "happy to answer the government's questions".

China's state administration for industry and commerce sent its investigators to the company's offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu as part of an official probe, the South China Morning Post reported.

A Microsoft spokesman said: "We aim to build products that deliver the features, security and reliability customers expect and we're happy to answer the government's questions."

The firm has been the focus of anti-US technology sentiment in the country following the revelation of NSA spying programmes by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Microsoft's relationship with China has been rocky - in May government offices were banned from installing Windows 8, the latest Microsoft operating system.

Earlier this month, Microsoft's OneDrive cloud storage service was reportedly disrupted.

And state media has previously demanded "severe punishment" against American technology companies for allegedly helping the US government to steal secrets and monitor China.

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Lloyds 'Risks Criminal Action' In Rigging Case

The Bank of England (BoE) governor has warned Lloyds Banking Group that "clearly unlawful" conduct over fee manipulation may amount to criminal behaviour as it was fined more than £200m.

Some £70m of the penalty related to efforts by Lloyds to rig fees payable to the BoE under a taxpayer-backed government programme aimed at supporting banks during the financial crisis.

In a letter dated July 15, Mark Carney told Lloyds chairman Lord Blackwell that attempts to reduce payments under this special liquidity scheme (SLS) were "reprehensible".

Mr Carney criticised attempts to reduce Lloyds' payments to the SLS scheme

Lloyds was fined a total of £218m by UK and US regulators over manipulation of the critical global interest rate Libor benchmark and the repo rate - used to calculate fees due to the BoE for its support.

It has also paid a £7.76m compensation figure to the BoE over the now-defunct SLS.

The UK regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), fined Lloyds £105m, while the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) fined Lloyds £62m and the US Department of Justice penalty was £51m.

Lloyds apologised for the "unacceptable" actions of individuals involved in the conduct and said the bank's previously lax operating culture was to blame.

MPs pursued the issue of Libor-fixing with BoE officials in 2012

It said: "The manipulation of submissions covered by the settlements took place between May 2006 and 2009 and the individuals involved have either left the group, been suspended or are subject to disciplinary proceedings."

The CFTC said the "unlawful conduct of Lloyds" undermined the integrity of Libor, which is the basis of trillions of dollars of financial instruments.

The FCA said the SLS manipulation happened between April 2008 and September 2009.

The regulator said more than a dozen individuals at Lloyds, including seven managers, were directly involved in or were aware of, the Libor manipulation.

Barclays was the first bank implicated in rate-fixing of Libor

Lloyds would have been hit by a 30% larger FCA fine if it did not settle at an early stage.

More than £2bn has now been paid by banks globally to regulators over alleged manipulation, including £290m by Barclays and £390m by RBS.

FCA director of enforcement and financial crime Tracey McDermott said: "Colluding to benefit the firms at the expense, ultimately, of the UK taxpayer was unacceptable."

On Friday, Sky News City Editor Mark Kleinman revealed the 25% taxpayer-owned group would seek to clawback bonuses paid to at least 15 former employees implicated in the inter-bank rate scandal.

The BoE said the latest case demonstrated the need for the Fair and Effective Markets Review, launched last month, which aims to restore public confidence in financial markets.

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