Hunt unveils measures to ensure customers get fair pricing June 28, 2023 Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has drafted an action plan with authorities to ensure customers are being facing fair prices during the cost of living crisis. Hunt sat down with the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), and the regulators for the energy, water and communications sectors, early on Wednesday 28 June at 11 Downing Street. He was [...]
Supermarkets behaving badly: Asda and Morrisons bosses back ‘transparent’ fuel pricing model June 27, 2023 Supermarkets bosses have been grilled by MPs on prices at the pump and agreed to consider entering into a fuel model which would give more transparency. The government has been mulling a scheme whereby petrol stations would have to share live prices in efforts to bring more price transparency for drivers – a similar system [...]
Jeremy Hunt to meet CMA, Ofgem, Ofwat and Ofcom over ‘profiteering’ concerns June 26, 2023 Jeremy Hunt will ask industry regulators what they are doing about any companies exploiting rampant inflation by raising prices. The Chancellor is set to meet the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), and the watchdogs for energy, water and communications on Wednesday. He will press them on whether there is a profiteering problem in their sectors [...]
Return to sender: Union suspends Royal Mail pay deal over ‘toxic’ environment May 24, 2023 A pay deal that helped end months of strike action at Royal Mail is at risk of falling apart after the Communication Workers Union (CWU) said today it would suspend its upcoming vote on the agreement over concerns with the company’s “toxic” working environment. The agreement, struck last month, included a 10 per cent salary [...]
BT gets thumbs up from Ofcom to roll out new wholesale broadband pricing May 24, 2023 BT has been given the all-clear to roll out its discounted wholesale full-fibre offer to broadband providers after the telecoms watchdog found the proposals were not anti-competitive. BT’s network arm Openreach, which runs the UK’s only national broadband network, put forward plans for a pricing deal that would give lower prices to wholesale customers, such [...]
Explainer: How Rishi Sunak is trying to strike a balance on AI regulation May 19, 2023 World leaders’ meetings like the G7, taking place in Japan right now, are not only about cringy photo ops and bilateral diplomatic statements. They’re also an opportunity for politicians to set out strategies and deliver messages to their foreign counterparts and their own domestic audience. Rishi Sunak has proven a sleek player on the foreign [...]
Royal Mail delivery target failures to be investigated by Ofcom – and a fine could be dished out May 15, 2023 Regulator Ofcom said it has launched an investigation into Royal Mail’s failure to meet its delivery targets in the past year – and could hand out a fine. The British delivery firm fell short of its performance targets across the 2022 to 2023 financial year for first and second class mail and deliveries. Some 73.7 [...]
Britain badly needs a godfather of AI regulation, but we’ll never be able to afford him (or her) May 4, 2023 The so-called Godfather of AI has quit Google over fears of the technology. He’s the kind of person who should be designing our laws - if we could afford him.
Wikipedia won’t comply with Online Safety Bill if passed, its charity warns April 28, 2023 Wikipedia will not comply with aspects of the Online Safety Bill if passed, the website’s charity has warned. The bill — currently sitting in the House of Lords — will compel social media platforms and tech companies to police and remove hateful content. It will also require platforms to keep adult content out of reach [...]
Sunak’s challenge is to design flexible but firm rules for artificial intelligence April 28, 2023 ChatGPT has thrown artificial intelligence into the mainstream, and now it's Rishi Sunak's job to design rules which don't prevent its growth, but keep us safe.