McDonald’s UK arm cut Children in Need giving despite jump in profits
McDonald’s UK arm has cut its donations to some charities despite profits soaring more than 80% last year as it shed almost 2,000 jobs, according to its latest accounts.Documents newly filed at Companies House for the fast food chain’s British business in 2024 show it gave £529,000 to Children in Need – reduced from £952,000 the previous year – and handed £744,000 to Ronald McDonald House charities, down from £779,000.It reduced the headcount at its directly operated business to 24,375 from 26,384 – with all reductions from restaurants and operations rather than head office.McDonald’s has more than 1,400 sites in the UK and Ireland, with a large proportion operated by franchisees who employ their own staff – more than 140,000 people.Just over half of sales reported by the UK arm came via franchisees.
It was not made clear in the accounts if some workers who left McDonald’s wholly owned outlets were transferred to franchise partners.The UK business said it had paid an £83m dividend to its parent group in 2024, up from zero a year before, as pre-tax profits rose to £120m despite a slight fall in sales to £1.82bn.The details of reduced staffing at McDonald’s come after the group said its high street estate “continues to be impacted by challenging retail footfall”.A statement from the board included in the accounts said an improvement in operating profits had been “predominantly driven by savings in administrative expenses”, but that improvement had been slowed “by continued inflationary pressures impacting food, paper and utility costs on the company-operated estate”.
The business, which has been criticised for its heavy use of zero-hours contracts, which are to be restricted under new government measures, said it offered staff “the choice between guaranteed hours and flexible contracts”.After reports of harassment of UK staff on zero-hours contracts, McDonald’s said in its accounts it was recruiting a “head of safeguarding” and had set up an investigations handling unit to follow up claims of abuse.In January, the chief executive of McDonald’s told MPs that 29 people had been dismissed in the past year after allegations of sexual harassment.The UK boss of the fast food chain, Alistair Macrow, said the company had been alerted to 75 allegations of sexual harassment over the last 12 months, 47 of which had been upheld with disciplinary action taken and 29 of which resulted in people being dismissed.Sign up to Business TodayGet set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morningafter newsletter promotionAt the time a spokesperson for the group said: “Any incident of misconduct and harassment is unacceptable and subject to rapid and thorough investigation and action.
”McDonald’s UK was approached for comment.
‘We didn’t vote for ChatGPT’: Swedish PM under fire for using AI in role
The Swedish prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, has come under fire after admitting that he regularly consults AI tools for a second opinion in his role running the country.Kristersson, whose Moderate party leads Sweden’s centre-right coalition government, said he used tools including ChatGPT and the French service LeChat. His colleagues also used AI in their daily work, he said.Kristersson told the Swedish business newspaper Dagens industri: “I use it myself quite often. If for nothing else than for a second opinion
Google says its new ‘world model’ could train AI robots in virtual warehouses
Google has outlined its latest step towards artificial general intelligence (AGI) with a new model that allows AI systems to interact with a convincing simulation of the real world.The Genie 3 “world model” could be used to train robots and autonomous vehicles as they engage with realistic recreations of environments such as warehouses, according to Google.The US technology company’s AI division, Google DeepMind, argues that world models are a key step to achieving AGI, a hypothetical level of AI where a system can carry out most tasks on a par with humans – rather than just individual tasks such as playing chess or translating languages – and potentially do someone’s job.DeepMind said such models would play an important role in the development of AI agents, or systems that carry out tasks autonomously.“We expect this technology to play a critical role as we push toward AGI, and agents play a greater role in the world,” DeepMind said
Should big tech be allowed to mine Australians’ text and data to train AI? The Productivity Commission is considering it
The Productivity Commission is examining whether technology firms should be exempted from copyright rules that stop companies from mining text and data to train artificial intelligence models.The PC, in its interim report into “harnessing data and the digital economy”, used copyright as a case study for how Australia’s existing regulatory framework could be adapted to manage the risks of artificial intelligence.A key recommendation from the interim report was that the federal government should conduct a sweeping review of regulations to plug potential gaps that could be exploited by “bad actors” using AI.Scott Farquhar, the co-founder of software company Atlassian, last week called for an “urgent” overhaul of Australia’s copyright rules, arguing they were out of step with other comparable countries.Farquhar said creating exemptions for text and data mining to train large language models “could unlock billions of dollars of foreign investment into Australia”
Dial N for nostalgia: landlines are back | Brief letters
Emma Brockes’ article threw open the door to landline memories (Worried about your child’s screentime? Get a landline, 31 July). When it rang, the enthusiasm that came with the conviction “it’s for me” v the reluctance when seemingly knowing “it’s not for me”. This was undoubtedly because the phone in a cold hallway meant no one wanted to leave the warmth and TV in the sitting room. Virginia RanscombeDerbyhaven, Isle of Man I can’t believe it has taken 40 years and a thinktank to realise the bleeding obvious about the sale of council housing (Right to buy in England ‘fuelled housing crisis and cost taxpayers £200bn’, 3 August). Wrong policy from the very beginning – and the fact it continued for so long is nothing short of scandalous
George Osborne says UK has been left behind in cryptocurrency boom
The UK has been left behind in the cryptocurrency boom and is in danger of missing a second wave of demand, according to the former chancellor George Osborne.Osborne, who has an advisory role at the crypto exchange firm Coinbase, said the country already missed out on the first generation of crypto because the formerly sceptical US had embraced digital currencies under Donald Trump.“What I see makes me anxious. Far from being an early adopter, we have allowed ourselves to be left behind,” wrote Osborne in a Financial Times opinion piece.Osborne said the UK was now about to miss a new surge in the crypto market: stablecoins
Tesla board awards $29bn of shares to Elon Musk
Tesla’s board has approved the award of $29bn (£22bn) worth of shares to its chief executive, Elon Musk, after a US court ruled against a previous pay deal for the world’s richest person.Musk will pay $2bn to buy 96m shares in the electric carmaker at the same price per share as a 10-year pay package agreed in 2018, which is stuck in legal limbo awaiting a court date for an appeal. The award was based on a recommendation from a “special committee” of the board.The announcement in a financial filing was accompanied by a shareholder letter from two members of the committee, Robyn Denholm, Tesla’s chair, and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson.It described the award as a “good faith” payment to Musk after the previous pay deal, worth $56bn, was rescinded in 2024 by a judge in Delaware, where the company was incorporated until June that year
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