COVID-19: Serco criticised for paying dividend after £350m Test and Trace boost

Serco's decision to pay an annual dividend has been criticised by Sir Keir Starmer after the company's revenues were boosted by £350m from Test and Trace.

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  • Rate of people with Covid antibodies ‘levels off’ across most of UK

    ‘Clear pattern’ between Covid vaccinations and antibody positivity across UK, says Office for National Statistics

  • Prince Philip funeral: Duke's respect for Navy fliers to feature in adapted hymn

    The hymn Eternal Father, Strong To Save will feature in the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral on Saturday, with the possible addition of a little-known extra verse at his request. Better known as "For Those in Peril on the Sea" after the last line, the usually four-verse hymn is considered especially poignant by military sailors. Rarely heard outside military circles, however, are two verses written specifically for aviators. They are inserted between the second and third verses. The additional words are understood to feature occasionally at Fleet Air Arm funerals, the aviation branch of the Royal Navy. One such was sung at the funeral of the man who taught the Duke to fly, while he was a Royal Navy officer. Unexpectedly turning up to the funeral many years ago, the Duke further surprised the congregation by singing, along with just a couple of other attendees, the unfamiliar words, which are not included in standard hymn books.

  • Greece to scrap quarantine for British tourists as Malta plans Covid certificate to lure UK visitors

    Greece is to throw open its borders from next week to visitors who have been vaccinated against Covid-19 or who have tested negative, in promising signs for British tourists hoping to book a holiday. It is encouraging news for Britons yearning for an Aegean break, even though there is a ban on non-essential international travel until May 17 at the earliest. Whether British tourists have to quarantine on their return home will depend on how Greece is classified under the traffic light system that will be announced by the government at some point in early May. The government has said that Britons should not book holidays yet because of the uncertainty of which countries will be green, amber and red. Current regulations state that all foreigners arriving in Greece have to show negative tests and then quarantine for seven days. But the Greek government plans to lift quarantine restrictions for travelers from the UK and the European Union as well as the US, Israel, Serbia and the United Arab Emirates. It comes as the country aims to open up to tourism from mid-May. "We will gradually lift the restrictions at the beginning of next week ahead of the opening on May 14," a senior tourism ministry official told Reuters. Visitors from Britain and the other countries will be allowed to fly in to the airports of Athens, Thessaloniki, Heraklion, Chania, Rhodes, Kos, Mykonos, Santorini and Corfu. Travelers will not have to go into quarantine as long as they prove that they have received two doses of a coronavirus vaccine or show a negative PCR test carried out 72 hours prior to their arrival. On arrival, however, they will be subject to local lockdown rules – a resurgence in cases over the winter means that Greece has been under tight restrictions for months. Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Greek prime minister, has strongly pushed the idea of Covid certificates as a way of kick-starting international travel this summer. That is crucial for Greece, where tourism accounts for a fifth of the economy. Meanwhile, Malta is holding bilateral talks with the UK about a digital coronavirus certificate that would allow British tourists to visit this summer, the country’s tourism minister said.

  • Nicola Sturgeon 'should thank Boris Johnson for refusing to sign up to EU vaccine scheme'

    Nicola Sturgeon should thank Boris Johnson for ignoring SNP demands to sign up to the EU's disastrous vaccine programme when she gets her first Covid jab on Thursday, the Scottish Tory leader has said. Douglas Ross said the First Minister would have faced a much longer wait to be vaccinated if Mr Johnson had heeded her party's demands for the UK to join the European scheme last year. The SNP confirmed that Ms Sturgeon, 50, is scheduled to receive her first jab after she launches her party's election manifesto on Thursday morning. A spokesman said: "These remarks from Douglas Ross are utterly pathetic but entirely in keeping with his petulant, puerile tone." A series of Ms Sturgeon's ministers demanded that the UK sign up to the EU's vaccine procurement plan last year and expressed outrage when Mr Johnson refused. Mike Russell, the Constitution Secretary, warned at the time: "This idiotic refusal is all about Brexit and nothing to do with the pandemic. It will cost lives." The decision was publicly opposed by a series of SNP MPs.

  • Boeing 737: History and safety record of the aeroplane

    The world’s biggest and most successful budget airlines, Ryanair and Southwest, fly 737s exclusively

  • ‘The fear is much worse is coming’: Loyalist leaders call for political action as Northern Ireland violence returns

    ‘The young people feel that violence has paid off for the republicans, so why shouldn’t it pay off for them?’ hears Kim Sengupta in Belfast

  • Royal family release unseen pictures of Duke of Edinburgh surrounded by great-grandchildren

    The Royal family have released unseen pictures of the Duke of Edinburgh surrounded by his great-grandchildren ahead of his funeral on Saturday. The pictures of Prince Philip include a photograph taken by the Duchess of Cambridge of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh surrounded by seven of their great-grandchildren at Balmoral Castle in 2018. In another, posted on the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's Twitter account, William and Kate are seen along with Prince George and Princess Charlotte in a photo with Philip and the Queen at Balmoral in 2015.

  • London Covid cases by borough revealed as capital hits 4 million vaccine doses

    Infections have fallen so far in one borough that the rate was equivalent to less than one confirmed case a day per 100,000 people

  • Boris Johnson is telling Scotland that the union is no longer based on consent

    Boris Johnson is telling Scotland that the union is no longer based on consent. If he refuses a referendum that Scots have voted for, there would be no lawful way to leave the UK. The implications are huge

  • Burkina Faso ex-president Compaoré to be tried for Thomas Sankara's 1987 murder

    In Burkina Faso, judges have ruled that exiled former president Blaise Compaoré must stand trial for his role in the assassination of Thomas Sankara, whom he overthrew in a coup d'état in 1987. Also, a Tuareg leader in Mali has been shot dead in the capital Bamako. Sidi Brahim Ould Sidati was a key figure in a 2015 peace accord. And in a major step forward for the protection of women and children in Gabon, customary marriages are finally recognised by the state.

  • English universities despair as in-person teaching ruled out before 17 May

    English universities despair as in-person teaching ruled out before 17 MayMove likely to fuel demands for compensation with students saying they have already missed outCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverage Students walk past Coventry University library. University leaders had hoped to persuade ministers to ease Covid restrictions in line with the lifting of other lockdown measures in England. Photograph: Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images

  • Biden’s White House communications strategy is driving Republicans insane

    In the words of one House Republican campaign operative, ‘It’s a nightmare’

  • Queen shares heartwarming picture of Prince Philip surrounded by seven of his great-grandchildren

    The Duke of Edinburgh is seen with all three Cambridge children as well as Savannah and Isla Phillips and Mia and Lena Tindall.

  • Hollyoaks' Summer Ranger makes surprising new move in battle with Sienna Blake

    Sienna is left unsettled by Summer's latest actions.

  • PMQs sketch: Boris Johnson gets amnesia as questions pile up about ‘Dave’

    Starmer scores - but Johnson’s relaxed gait suggets he thinks nobody is paying any attention

  • A gold nose pin, boxes of eggs, or a tax rebate: Covid vaccine incentives around the world

    A gold nose pin, boxes of eggs, or a tax rebate: Covid vaccine incentives around the worldMembers of the public are being offered gifts and discounts to encourage vaccine take-upSee all our coronavirus coverage A man receives a dose of Covid-19 coronavirus vaccine in Dhaka Photograph: Suvra Kanti Das/ZUMA Wire/REX/Shutterstock

  • EU Commission to end AstraZeneca and J&J vaccine contracts at expiry - paper

    The EU Commission has decided not to renew COVID-19 vaccine contracts next year with AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson (J&J), Italian daily La Stampa reported on Wednesday, citing a source from the Italian health ministry. "The European Commission, in agreement with the leaders of many (EU) countries, has decided that the contracts with the companies that produce (viral vector) vaccines that are valid for the current year will not be renewed at their expiry," the newspaper reported. A spokesman for the EU Commission said it was keeping all options open to be prepared for the next stages of the pandemic, for 2022 and beyond.

  • Ex-Hollyoaks star Danny Mac "so excited" to welcome first child with Carley Stenson

    "We're just getting on with it the best we can."

  • Covid crisis leads to ‘sharp rise’ in black youth unemployment

    The UK jobless rate for young black people rose by more than a third to 35 per cent during the pandemic

  • Truck driver jailed for 22 years for killing four police officers in Melbourne crash

    A truck driver who was under the influence of drugs and sleep deprived when he drove into four police officers has been sentenced to 22 years in prison. The traffic officers - three policemen and a policewoman - had pulled over a speeding car when Mohinder Singh ploughed into them. Officers Lynette Taylor, Kevin King, Glen Humphris and Joshua Prestney all died at the scene.