News in Brief

The UK's pensions debate was set to be re-ignited after the UK came second from bottom in a new table comparing pensions in 15 European countries. It found the average UK worker retires on a pension - state and private - of 77% of earnings, the lowest percentage in the EU except for Finland. Greece tops the pensions table with a figure of 103% - which means the average employee there is better off in retirement than in work. France comes out level with the UK on 77%, and the only country to score lower is Finland at 73%. The UK's higher earners come out a lot better -- a UK employee on £72,000-a-year typically retires on a pension of 80% of earnings

Improvements to National Vocational Qualifications were being announced by the Government, to make them "more rigorous". Education and Employment Minister Baroness Blackstone said reduction of bureaucracy and better assessment of skills would raise NVQ standards. They were introduced in 1990 as a work-based alternative to GCSEs and A Levels, but critics have said they give formal qualifications for menial tasks. Baroness Blackstone said: "It's a very decentralised system and sometimes they do fall short."

Companies who flout competition laws could be fined up to 10% of their annual turnover under a draft bill. Customers and competitors would also be able to seek damages from firms which break laws designed to protect competition in the UK. Publishing the bill, President of the Board of Trade Margaret Beckett said: "Present competition law is not working well. Its reform is long overdue. Consumers need a better deal. We need to prevent and remedy anti-competitive behaviour more effectively."

Breaches of tobacco advertising have doubled in the last year, Health Secretary Frank Dobson said. Calling the figures "deeply disappointing", he hit out at tobacco companies for failing to comply with advertising standards. Posters promoting cigarettes near schools were the most common breaches. Mr Dobson warned the industry's failure to comply with voluntary advertising standards was another nail in the coffin for tobacco advertising.

The International Development minister George Foulkes is to visit the volcano-ravaged island of Montserrat. A joint statement from the Foreign Office, the Department for International Development and a delegation from Montserrat, which has been in Britain for the past week, said Mr Foulkes would visit the island on August 31. It reaffirmed Britain's commitment to ensuring the viability of the north of the island for all those who wished to remain on Montserrat or return to the island.