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Royal Mail has been fined £5.6 million by regulator Ofcom for a “significant” failure to meet its postal delivery targets in the past financial year. Ofcom imposed the penalty following an investigation launched in May after Royal Mail fell short of its performance targets across the 2022 to 2023 financial year for first and second class mail deliveries. Some 73.7% of first class mail was delivered within one working day

British holidaymakers increasingly chose staycations this year amid wildfires across Europe and soaring air fares, with domestic trips proving popular again for 2024, according to accommodation search website Trivago. The group’s recently appointed chief executive Johannes Thomas said UK hotel bookings in the third and fourth quarters of the year are dominated by domestic destinations. The rising cost of flights has been a big factor in the increasing popularity of

Retail giant the Co-op is calling for more action to tackle crime in the sector amid a warning it has reached record levels. At the start of Respect for Shopworkers Week, the Co-op said repeat offenders and criminal gangs were operating “exempt from consequences”. The firm said its latest data showed that of the near 3,000 occasions this year where specialist security teams detained serious offenders in its stores, the

One in four teachers think “banter” is a serious problem in their schools, a poll has found. More than three in five (62%) teachers agree there is a fine line between banter and bullying, according to the survey commissioned by the Anti-Bullying Alliance. The poll, which questioned nearly 900 teachers in the UK between May and June, found 37% believe the effects of banter online are serious and 26% think

A children’s TV presenter has talked about writing her new book aimed at helping to represent mixed-race children in literature. Gemma Hunt, who fronts the CBBC programme Swashbuckle, wrote the book for her own daughter, who has a mixed-race mother, a white father, a black grandmother, and a white grandfather, so that she could see a family like her own reflected in the books she reads. “We couldn’t find any

Suella Braverman has been sacked as home secretary as Rishi Sunak took action following her unauthorised article criticising the way pro-Palestinian protests had been policed. A No 10 source said the Prime Minister “asked Suella Braverman to leave Government and she has accepted”. The Conservatives said Mr Sunak is carrying out a wider reshuffle which “strengthens his team in Government to deliver long-term decisions for a brighter future”. But sacking

A family will challenge ministers over what they believe is the unduly lenient sentence for a man whose dangerous driving led to the deaths of their loved ones. Paul Carter, his wife Lisa, and Lisa’s daughter Jade Mace died on the A47 in Norfolk in January. Aurelijus Cielevicius pleaded guilty to causing their deaths by dangerous driving,. He was found to be under the influence of a cocktail of drugs

First Minister Humza Yousaf and his deputy should refer themselves to the independent adviser for the ministerial code over suggestions they misled parliament, the Scottish Tories have said. Mr Yousaf and Shona Robison have been under fire in the past week after the Scottish Government published a timeline of its dealings with the UK Covid-19 Inquiry and when it was asked to divulge WhatsApp messages. The timeline showed requests for

Rishi Sunak will outline his vision for a “hard-headed” foreign policy approach that defends UK values from adversaries at a time for “moral clarity” as war rages in the Middle East and Ukraine. The Prime Minister will speak of the UK’s desire to “shape the world” as he highlights his record on forging international partnerships on defence, trade and migration. Mr Sunak, who has claimed he represents change from his