Rachel Reeves will not be investigated over pre-budget briefing, FCA says
The UK’s financial regulator has decided not to immediately investigate Rachel Reeves and the Treasury over pre-budget briefings but left the door open for further examination of what the Conservatives claimed amounted to market manipulation,In a letter addressed to the chair of the Treasury committee, Meg Hillier, the the chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said the regulator had turned down requests by politicians including the shadow chancellor, Mel Stride, to open an inquiry into briefings made before last week’s announcement by the chancellor,Nikhil Rathi said the FCA had “not commenced an enforcement investigation” into potential market abuse, but added that the regulator would consider the findings of a Treasury inquiry into pre-budget leaks,On Wednesday, the Treasury minister James Murray said the department’s permanent secretary, James Bowler, would review “security processes” to inform future events,He said the inquiry had the “full support” of Reeves and the “whole Treasury team”.
The FCA said: “We have requested details of this work and that the outcome, including of the inquiry into any leak of market-sensitive or inside information relating to the budget, is shared with us so we can consider as appropriate,”This year’s budget was preceded by numerous stories about what was being considered, including the revelation in the Financial Times days beforehand that Reeves had abruptly dropped a plan to raise income tax rates,Allies of the chancellor said the U-turn had come about because of improved forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility, but the OBR later clarified it had not updated its forecasts for two weeks,The confusion around Reeves’s decisions and the competing explanations as to why they were taken has led to accusations that Treasury officials deliberately misled reporters in an attempt to keep UK borrowing costs low,Stride said this week that Treasury’s “leaks and spin” had led to market speculation being “rife, and the gilt markets volatile”.
He added in his letter to the FCA: “It seems increasingly clear that the chancellor has been giving an inaccurate picture of the economic and fiscal context and this appears to be driven by political considerations.”However, Rathi said in the letter that the core purpose of the regulator’s market abuse rules was to ensure a level playing field and confidence in markets.“Its purpose is not to make judgments on political discourse, even though that discourse may on occasion have an impact on markets,” he said.“How the government publicly communicates its position in advance of a fiscal event or similar is a matter for parliament through its accountability mechanisms.”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 promotionControversies around the budget have also ensnared the OBR.
Its chair, Richard Hughes, resigned on Monday, after the Treasury watchdog mistakenly published a key document before the chancellor delivered her speech.Hughes said he took “full responsibility” for the failure to handle sensitive information, after damning internal inquiry that also found that this was not the first time the OBR had inadvertently published budget documents early.It emerged that its reports had also been accessed early in March 2025 before the spring statement, although no action was taken as a result of the breach.In his letter, Rathi said the FCA was considering the OBR’s report into the early release of the Economic and Fiscal Outlook document.He added that the regulator welcomed the statement from the OBR that it “would cooperate fully with the FCA”.
NHS braces for ‘unprecedented flu wave’ as hospitalised cases in England rise
The NHS is facing an “unprecedented flu wave”, a senior healthcare leader said, as the number of people with the illness in hospitals across England hit a record high.The statistics, published by NHS England as part of its first weekly snapshot of the performance of hospitals this winter, found that an average of 1,717 flu patients were in beds each day last week – more than 50% higher than last year – including 69 patients whose condition was critical.This is compared with 1,098 flu patients in NHS hospital beds at the same time last year, representing a 56% increase. In 2023 there were 160 flu patients in beds in the same week.Prof Julian Redhead, the national director for urgent and emergency care, said the figures confirmed the NHS’s “deepest concerns” that the health service was bracing for an unprecedented flu wave this winter, with cases “incredibly high for this time of year and there is no peak in sight yet”
Children in England most active since 2017 – but majority still fall short of targets
Children in England are the most active they have been since 2017, according to research that warns that less than half are meeting government activity level targets.In 2024-25, 3.6 million children took part in an average of more than 60 minutes of sport and physical activity per day across the week, according to Sport England’s annual active lives survey. This represents 49.1% of five- to 16-year-olds in England – a 1
Parents and young people: share your concerns about ultra-processed foods (UPFs)
This month, the Lancet published the world’s largest review on the health threats of ultra-processed foods (UPFs), showing that they are replacing fresh food on every continent and are exposing millions of people to long-term harm. Globally one in 10 children are considered obese, as junk food overwhelms childhood diets. Previous research has shown how susceptible children are to junk food advertising.Parents and young people, are you concerned about the level of UPFs in your diet? Is it easy and affordable to find fresh food and eat healthily where you live? What changes do you think would help encourage healthy eating habits? We’re particularly interested in hearing from parents in low- and middle-income countries where the rise in childhood obesity is steepest.You can share your concerns about ultra-processed foods (UPFs) using this form
‘I don’t take no for an answer’: how a small group of women changed the law on deepfake porn
For Jodie*, watching the conviction of her best friend, and knowing she helped secure it, felt at first like a kind of victory. It was certainly more than most survivors of deepfake image-based abuse could expect.They had met as students and bonded over their shared love of music. In the years since graduation, he’d also become her support system, the friend she reached for each time she learned that her images and personal details had been posted online without her consent. Jodie’s pictures, along with her real name and correct bio, were used on many platforms for fake dating profiles, then adverts for sex work, then posted on to Reddit and other online forums with invitations to deepfake them into pornography
Pornography company fined £1m by Ofcom for not having strong enough age checks
A pornography company that runs 18 adult websites has been fined £1m by the watchdog Ofcom for not having strong enough age checks, in the largest fine yet under the UK’s Online Safety Act.The Belize-based AVS Group has been hit with the punishment, plus a further £50,000 for failing to respond to information requests.It is the third time that the internet and communications watchdog has fined a company in relation to the Online Safety Act, which brought into force strict age-checking requirements in July.While AVS has implemented what it claims is an age verification regime, the regulator’s investigation did not deem it to be highly effective.The company now has 72 hours to introduce age checks that Ofcom will view as effective or face a penalty of £1,000 a day
Probation officers in England and Wales to be given self-defence training after stabbings
Probation officers will be given self-defence training, bleed kits and body-worn cameras for the first time under plans before ministers in the wake of two stabbings, the Guardian has learned.Knife arches and handheld metal-detecting wands, which can be used to search people for weapons, have been approved for pilot schemes in selected offices.The disclosures come days after a staff member was stabbed in a probation office in Oxford. Separately, a man has admitted the attempted murder in July of a female officer in another probation centre in Preston, Lancashire.The probation officers’ union, which believes these are the first knife attacks in probation offices, has said members have a “palpable fear” about going to work since the attacks
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