Number of rail trips using season tickets now 13%, down from 34% before the pandemic

The use of rail season tickets in Great Britain has plummeted to the lowest level on record, driven by a rise in working from home since the Covid-19 pandemic.

The number of rail journeys made by people using season tickets fell to 13% in the year to 31 March, from 15% in the previous year, according to figures from the Office for Rail and Road, the industry regulator. This is the lowest figure since records started in 1986-87.

Bad weather makes consumers trim supermarket shop and rethink summer purchases despite slower food price rises

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Britons have cut back on their supermarket shopping and traditional summer purchases because of recent poor weather, even though grocery price inflation slowed further, according to a report.

Supermarket prices were 2.1% higher than a year ago in the four weeks to 9 June, according to the retail researchers Kantar. This is down from May’s 2.4% inflation rate, and marks the 16th month that price rises have slowed. Kantar found costs are falling in nearly a third of the categories it tracks, including toilet tissue, butter and milk, an improvement from last year when just 1% of categories showed price declines.

With nearly 60% of NHS cataract operations outsourced, critics say it is sapping funding for more serious conditions

Hundreds of thousands more NHS patients a year are having cataracts removed in England in a boom driven by private clinics – but funded by taxpayers.

Doctors say the trend, which now means nearly 60% of NHS cataract operations are outsourced to private providers – up from 24% five years ago – is piling pressure on already stretched NHS finances and sapping the funds needed for more serious conditions that can lead to blindness.

The owner of Vauxhall, Jeep and Fiat says it opposes EU measures against Chinese EVs and wants to compete ‘as a global company’

The owner of the Jeep, Fiat and Vauxhall brands has said it will not take a defensive stance in the battle for electric car sales, amid signs of an escalating trade war in the market between Europe and China.

Stellantis’s chief executive, Carlos Tavares, has criticised the EU tariffs on imported Chinese cars announced on Wednesday and said the world’s fourth biggest carmaker preferred to “fight to stay competitive”.

Love Island and Towie stars also in court accused of plugging trading scheme on social media

A Celebrity Big Brother winner has pleaded not guilty in a case brought against a group of social media influencers accused of promoting an unauthorised foreign exchange trading scheme on Instagram.

Scott Timlin, 36, the former Geordie Shore star known as Scotty T, is one of nine people charged by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in a crackdown on “finfluencers”.

Insurance and asset management group’s new chief promises a ‘simpler’ business, focused on three divisions

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The new boss of Legal & General has announced a shake-up of the company, including a sharper focus on its booming pensions arm and putting its housebuilding business up for sale.

The insurance and asset management group’s new chief executive, António Simões, a banker who started in January and previously worked for Santander and HSBC, promised a “simpler and better-connected” business, focused on three divisions.

Train and bus group applies for more ‘open access’ services as government attempts to increase competition

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The British transport operator FirstGroup has applied for two more “open access” services outside the main train operating contracts as the government attempts to increase competition on the rail network and cut fares.

Open access means the operator takes full commercial risk, running services on infrastructure owned by a third party, on a chosen route that is not subject to a rail franchise set by the Department for Transport.

Data watchdogs in UK and Canada to look at whether there were enough safeguards on personal information

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The California genetic testing company 23andMe faces investigations by the data watchdogs of the UK and Canada over a security breach affecting nearly 7 million people last October.

Hackers who broke into the site gained access to personal information by using customers’ old passwords. In some cases the information accessed included family trees, birth years and geographic locations.