Emma Maxwell

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has warned that up to half a million patients may be paying for private treatment unnecessarily every year.

The work and pensions secretary has accused the public accounts committee of “holding back” evidence over alleged fraud at the welfare-to-work company A4e from government investigators.

A report by a health think tank finds that less target-driven leadership in the NHS can reduce infection and mortality rates while saving money and raising staff morale.

Psychotherapist Lesley Pilkington loses her appeal against suspension from her professional body over a therapy session with a journalist who posed as a christian wanting to be “cured” of being gay.

British holidaymakers will find their travel money goes nearly 23 per cent further in Brazil this year, but visitors to the USA will get less for their sterling.

The government has emphasised that while civil servants are being encouraged to vary their work journeys to avoid Olympic disruption, there will be no reduction in the amount of work they do.

The government has ended a contract with the company A4e to help find unemployed people work after an audit found “weaknesses” in A4e’s internal mechanisms for preventing fraud.

The cost of an average comprehensive insurance policy has doubled in the last two years, says the AA, as insurers pay out for ever more whiplash injury claims.

Recognised by the Design Museum as an icon of the British street scene, BT has announced that it is to sell off its stock of surplus red phone boxes for the first time in 25 years.

Part of the 2012 budget was dedicated to making the tax system simpler. Channel 4 News casts an eye over the topsy-turvy world of value added tax.

Residents of the Syria city of Homs have reported hearing massive shelling of the besieged Baba Amro district, as the Assad regime refuses a visit by a top United Nations official.

The trial of a nightclub bouncer accused of killing a heavily pregnant teenager and her unborn child began on Wednesday.

SNP leader Alex Salmond tells Channel 4 News that the bad debts of the part-nationalised Royal Bank of Scotland should remain with the Treasury in London even if Scotland votes for independence.