Tobacco Firms Fight EU Picture Warning Rules

The world's biggest tobacco companies have made a legal bid to have new EU health warnings and a ban on menthol cigarettes overturned.

Philip Morris International (PMI) and British American Tobacco (BAT), with support from other companies including Imperial Tobacco and Japan Tobacco International, launched the legal action in London.

The bid questions the legality of the new EU Tobacco Products Directive, which aims to cut the number of smokers in Europe.

Sitting in London, High Court judge Mr Justice Turner referred the case to the Court of Justice of the EU, after hearing legal argument.

Earlier this year the reforms were voted in by the European Parliament, making it compulsory to have the health warnings covering 65% of front and back packaging.

The directive also calls for a ban on small "lipstick-style" packs aimed at women, halting claims about "additive-free" tobacco being better for smokers, and menthol cigarettes being outlawed.

Cancer charities have backed the EU measure, amid an estimated 700,000 premature deaths in the bloc each year.

But critics counter the claim and insist the new rules represent a "nanny state mentality".

Europe's highest court will now be asked to rule in judicial review applications and decide if the EU has misused its powers to legislate for tobacco, and whether its actions are "proportionate".

The court's review process could take in excess of 24 months to complete.

The European Commission hopes the new rules will "deter young people from experimenting with, and becoming addicted to, tobacco" and see the number of smokers drop by 2% in the next five years.

The tobacco companies said legal action was filed in England as it allows for a "fast and efficient forum for private litigants" to reach the European courts.

PMI senior vice president Marc Firestone said the London court's referral decision "marks an important first step" in the legal battle.

He added: "We believe the directive disrupts the balance that the EU treaties establish between the Union and the member states, and we are looking forward to a thorough, objective review by the EU's highest court."

Mr Firestone said there was no disagreement that tobacco products should be strictly regulated, "but measures must honour the EU treaties".

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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.

Tax summary breakdown showing both monetary and visual representations

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.

The statements, including a graphic breakdown, arrive in seven weeks

"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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RBS To Help Cops Catch White-Collar Criminals

Taxpayer-backed Royal Bank of Scotland is to help it investigate complex financial crimes with the City of London police, it has been confirmed.

In what it described as a "landmark agreement", the bank which is 80% owned by the Government, will help "tackle the most complex and challenging financial crimes facing the UK".

The force said RBS staff will assist its economic crime directorate on a voluntary basis, supporting training events and research and development projects.

City of London police are responsible for enforcing laws inside the Square Mile, the geographical heart of Britain's crucial financial sector.

However, bankers will not be involved in any operational police activity and will not be asked to advise on information relating to specific investigations.

Video: How Would Business Be Affected?

Commissioner Adrian Leppard, who is the National Policing Lead for Fraud, said: "Signing this agreement with RBS, which we hope will be the first of many with the financial sector.

"(It) means we can now tap into their massive knowledge base of financial products and digital technology and use their foreign language skills, which reflects the increasingly international dimension of economic crime investigation."

Like other banking industry giants, RBS has been the recipient of fines, settlements and set aside provisions as global regulators turned from soft-touch supporters to fierce watchdogs.

Video: Sky's Business Presenter Ian King

RBS and others have incurred massive costs over insurance mis-selling, benchmark rate manipulation and more recently currency trading allegations.

The financial crash in 2008 also lead to the Government bailout of RBS, in Britain's biggest ever company failure.

Last month, RBS avoided fines totalling €115m (£90m) after telling EU watchdogs of attempts to rig Swiss franc interest rates with JP Morgan.

Video: RBS Profits 'Boosted By Economy'

RBS head of security, resilience and control Emma Smith said: "Protecting the safety and security of our customers and staff is a top priority as we work towards making RBS the most trusted bank by 2020.

"I am delighted to have signed this agreement and look forward to working closely with the City of London Police in their fight against financial crime.

"The experience and expertise of our employees will help safeguard our customers and others."

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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, 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.

The living wage is now set at £7.85 an hour in the UK outside London - significantly higher than the minimum wage of £6.50 an hour for those over 21 and £5.13 for those aged 18 to 20. A new living wage rate for London has been set at £9.15 an hour.

While the minimum wage is legally enforceable, the living wage shows the minimum pay rates workers need to lead a decent life.

The living wage is currently calculated by the Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University, while the London living wage has been calculated by the GLA since 2005.

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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RBS Faces Record FCA Fine For 2012 IT Failure

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

The City regulator is to fine the taxpayer-backed Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) tens of millions of pounds for an IT failure in 2012 which left customers without access to their money.

Sky News can reveal that the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) told RBS last month that it must pay a sum that would represent a record for a systems-related problem, reflecting the serious nature of the breakdown almost two-and-a-half years ago.

In its third-quarter results announcement on Friday, RBS reiterated previous statements about the failure, pointing to an earlier provision in its accounts of £175m to reimburse customers who had suffered losses.

However, it added that enforcement proceedings had commenced, meaning that the FCA had now proposed a settlement and that the bank had been given 28 days to respond.

The development means that an end to the FCA's enforcement investigation, which began in April 2013, is now in sight, although the precise timing could be delayed if RBS decided to contest any of the regulator's findings.

RBS could receive a discount of up to 30% on the proposed penalty if it agrees to settle within the 28-day window under FCA rules.

Sources put the scale of the likely fine to be imposed on RBS at "several tens of millions of pounds", which would rank it among the largest ever handed out by the City regulator for offences unrelated to the manipulation of financial markets.

The Central Bank of Ireland is also investigating RBS's Ulster Bank subsidiary in relation to the same issue, and RBS said last week that it "anticipates entering into settlement discussions with the CBI before the end of the year".

Sky News revealed earlier this year that the FCA was to tackle the robustness of banks' IT systems as one of its priorities for this year.

Last December, RBS suffered another systems outage on the busiest online shopping day of the year, the third time in about 18 months that such a problem had prevented customers from using cards, cash machines and online banking services.

Other banks have also been hit by IT problems which have affected customer-facing services on a regular basis.

RBS has since pledged to invest more than £1bn in its digital capabilities and IT systems during the next three years.

Clive Adamson, director of supervision at the FCA, said in April: "To access and manage our money we depend on the banks' IT systems being reliable. But IT outages continue, interrupting key banking services.

"We want to make sure that the banks have resilient IT systems in place that are able to cope with consumer demand, so customers aren't left financially stranded or disadvantaged."

The FCA's new work is being conducted in conjunction with the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Bank of England, and is examining how banks and building societies manage their exposure to IT risks.

It is also looking at the level of engagement by bank boards on the issue, as well as whether directors are sufficiently knowledgeable to challenge executives.

RBS and the FCA declined to comment on Monday.

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World Trade Center Reopens 13 Years On

By Sky News US Team

Thirteen years after the 9/11 terrorist attack, the resurrected World Trade Center is again opening for business.

Publishing company Conde Nast will start moving on Monday into One World Trade Center, a 104-storey skyscraper that dominates the Manhattan skyline.

Only about 170 of his company's 3,400 employees are moving in now. Still, the opening marks an emotional milestone for both New Yorkers and the nation.

"The New York City skyline is whole again, as One World Trade Center takes its place in Lower Manhattan," said Patrick Foye, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey that owns both the building and the World Trade Center site.

The skyscraper - at 1,776ft (541m), the US tallest building - is the centrepiece of the site where the Twin Towers once stood.

1/10

1. Gallery: One World Trade Center Reaches Full Height

   The 1,776ft-tall One World Trade Center towers above buildings in lower Manhattan.

2. It is topped with a 400ft silver spire, which was hoisted from the ground...

3. ... and carefully attached by construction workers.

4. Ironworkers cheered as the final piece of the spire was placed on top of the skyscraper.

5. Some took photographs to mark the occasion ...

6. ... while others signed their names and initials on steel girders.

7. One World Trade Center is the tallest structure in the US and offers great views across New York City.

8. Its height is a nod to the date the US gained independence - July 4, 1776.

9. The spire which now tops the tower will serve as a giant broadcast antenna.

10. One World Trade Center opens its doors on November 3, 2014.

More than 2,700 people died on 11 September 2001, buried under smoking mounds of fiery debris.

The building's eight-year construction came after years of political, financial and legal infighting that threatened to derail the project. It cost $3.9bn (£2.4bn)

But lower Manhattan has prospered in recent years. Today, about 60,000 more residents now live there - three times more than before 9/11.

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1. Gallery: Protest At Ground Zero

   Relatives of unidentified 9/11 victims are angry at plans to keep the remains in an underground repository at the National September 11 Memorial Museum.

2. The remains returned to the World Trade Center site in a solemn procession.

3. A police motorcade accompanied the transfer on a foggy morning.

4. Firefighters stood saluting the vehicles as they arrived at the site.

5. Some protesters wore black bands over their mouths. They demand a say, and insist the remains should be stored in an above-ground monument.

6. About 41% of those who died in the September 11, 2001 attacks have not been identified.

7. In many cases the remains amount to just fragments of bone.

8. The death toll stemming from the attacks at the World Trade Center stands at 2,753.

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Ryanair: It's Good To Be Nice To Passengers

No-frills carrier Ryanair has seen half-year profit rise by a third, on the back of fare increases and being "nicer" to passengers.

It said a 5% rise in ticket prices and 4% boost in seat loading were key factors behind the 32% rise in pre-tax profit, to €907.5m (£709m), in the six months to the end of September.

The average fare rose 5% in the period, to €68.95 (£53.90).

Speaking to Sky's Eamonn Holmes, Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary said: "We've had a very strong summer, by keeping fares low (in comparison to competitors) and being nicer to our customers."

The company has successfully cut its overheads, improved website offerings and expanded its business passenger options in a battle with key rivals EasyJet and British Airways, amid an ambitious plan to overhaul its attitude to customers.

Mr O'Leary added: "It's a new-found experience I must admit for me, but if it works this well I wish I'd been nicer to our customers much earlier. It's better late than never.

"We've been listening to our customers in the last 12 months … I think this being nicer to customers is really a new and winning strategy for me and Ryanair."

Half-year revenue was up 9% to €3,53bn (£2.76bn), with profit after tax rising from €602m (£470m) to €795m (£620m), compared with the same period last year.

Shares were up 8% in early trading as a result of the profit boost.

The airline now expects full-year net profit to would now be around €760m (£595m), compared with its previous forecast of €650m (£510m).

Mr O'Leary also confirmed the airline was considering an entry into the packaged tour market, but downplayed talk of transatlantic routes in the near-term.

He said a lack of long-haul aircraft hampered the idea, but with a big order book for short-haul planes he expects a near-doubling of annual passenger numbers to 150 million in the next decade.

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Brazil Plans Own Internet Cable To Beat Spies

Brazil is beating the National Security Agency's (NSA) web snoops by building its own 3,500-mile internet cable under the Atlantic.

Internet communications are relayed around the world using undersea cables - but revelations by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden last year showed that the infrastructure is open to state monitoring.

The majority of undersea cables stretch from the US east coast to Europe, and Brazil's data currently travels across the Atlantic via the US.

But the $185m (£115m) direct link to ally Portugal will mean that data will bypass the US and its snooping powers altogether.

Government agencies have already switched email clients from Microsoft Outlook to the state-developed Expresso system to avoid espionage.

State departments have also been told to use domestic technology companies instead of US firms to ensure backdoor access to computer systems cannot be installed illicitly.

The switch by the world's seventh-largest economy to domestic technology firms over US companies is expected to cost the US economy around $35bn (£22bn), according to analysts.

Work on the cable is due begin in the first half of 2015.

Mr Snowden's revelations last year showed that Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff was among those spied on by the NSA.

The whisteleblower is now living in Russia to avoid a US arrest warrant.

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HSBC Prepares For UK Forex Fines Of £236m

Banking giant HSBC has set aside almost £250m as it prepares itself to be hit with fines over alleged foreign exchange manipulation.

It said it has made a $378m (£236m) provision for potential penalties following an investigation by Britain's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

"Discussions are ongoing with the FCA regarding a proposed resolution of their foreign exchange investigation with respect to HSBC Bank plc's systems and controls relating to one part of its spot FX trading business in London," it confirmed.

"Although there can be no certainty that a resolution will be agreed, if one is reached, the resolution is likely to involve the payment of a significant financial penalty.

"We continue to cooperate fully with regulatory and law enforcement authorities in the UK and other jurisdictions."

Video: 1964: Banking For the Ladies

HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays have now set aside a combined figure of more than £1.1bn for potential FCA fines over currency-rigging claims.

US investigators are also likely to hit HSBC, Europe's biggest banking group, with settlement charges, but it has not chosen to quantify those possible penalties.

In addition to the currency trading woes, HSBC also said it was setting aside around £370m for potential additional payment protection insurance (PPI) mis-selling in the UK.

Video: MP Talks About Forex Probe

It has also agreed a $550m (£340m) settlement with the US Federal House Finance Agency.

The bank also confirmed it had been summoned to appear before French magistrates over whether its Swiss private bank had helped French citizens to evade tax.

Early last month, Sky News city editor Mark Kleinman revealed two key directors were quitting over tough new regulations that could see directors jailed over failed banks.

Video: The Cost Of Banking To The Banks

The news about the potential penalties comes as the bank released its results for the three months to the end of September.

Although total revenues were flat at $15.57bn (£9.7bn), adjusted pre-tax profit fell 12% to $4.4bn (£2.75bn) on the back of impairment charges that reached almost $1.7bn (£1bn).

Statutory pre-tax profit rose by just 2% on the 2013 figure, far below analysts' expectation of around 16%.

Video: Oddie Confronts HSBC Over Loggers

Shares were down in early trading before recovering.

Net profit for the period rose 7% to $3.43bn (£2.1bn), compared to the same period last year.

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Merkel Warns Cameron On EU Immigration: Reports

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is reported to have made clear she will withdraw her support for Britain's continued EU membership if David Cameron insists on pushing through curbs on immigration.

News weekly Der Spiegel quoted government sources as saying Ms Merkel fears the UK is approaching "the point of no return" and is becoming worried for the first time that a British exit is a real possibility.

In response to the report, Downing Street said Mr Cameron remained determined to address the issue of immigration in renegotiating Britain's EU membership.

Chancellor George Osborne also said the Conservatives would "make sure Britain gets a fair deal".

Ms Merkel is reported to have told the PM on the sidelines of an EU summit last month that his efforts to limit immigration undermined core principles of bloc.

Video: 'We Will Fight For UK's Interest'

"Should Cameron persist (in this plan), Chancellor Angela Merkel would abandon her efforts to keep Britain in the EU," the sources were quoted as telling the magazine.

"With that a point of no return would be reached," they said, adding: "That would be it then."

There was no suggestion in the Der Spiegel report that Germany would itself push Britain towards the exit.

Ms Merkel has said she strongly backs continued British membership, but not at any price.

Video: Johnson Reacts To Merkel Comments

No member state has ever left the 28-nation bloc, although there is a legal mechanism for a country to do so if it chooses. Other member states cannot force a country out.

The Prime Minister wants to renegotiate the terms of Britain's membership ahead of the Conservatives' promised referendum by the end of 2017.

He is under pressure to tighten the UK's immigration controls to counter the growing popularity of UKIP.

Mr Cameron will be aware of the need to calm Tory jitters ahead of this month's crunch by-election in Rochester and Strood, where the party is desperate to prevent a second seat falling to UKIP.

Video: Closer Look At Immigration Figures

The Sunday Times reported he was drawing up plans to ban migrants who do not have a jobs and deport those who are unable to support themselves after three months in the country.

A German government spokesman said the general principle of freedom of movement in the EU is not negotiable, but added there is a strong interest in the two countries discussing how to tackle abuse of that freedom.

Downing Street described the report of Ms Merkel's warning as "speculation", but said Mr Cameron would press ahead with renegotiating changes to EU immigration.

"The Prime Minister's view on this hasn't changed," a Number 10 spokeswoman said.

Video: EU Demand: What Are PM's Options?

"He was clear before the European Council that he recognises the British public have got concerns about the impact of EU migration here in the UK, and he is going to address these as part of the renegotiation."

Reacting to the reported remarks, Mr Osborne said: "We will fight for Britain's interest, we will make sure that Britain gets a fair deal in Europe and then make sure the British people have the final say in a referendum."

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