Ministers are announcing action to prevent medicines being prescribed unnecessarily, following a new review led by the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for England.

Several years ago, I randomly won a prize when buying some bottles of lager: a glass chalice that the brewery would engrave with an inscription of my choice. I thought it would be amusing to choose a phrase that gently mocked the constant reminders that accompanied every beer advert, so I asked for my engraving to read: “Please drink irresponsibly”. Several weeks passed and no chalice arrived.

The Foreign Secretary Liz Truss will meet a number of her international counterparts for the first time at the United Nations General Assembly in New York today (20 September) – including Iranian Foreign Minister Amir Abdollahian.

Polling reveals people in the North have become more optimistic on the North’s economy since the start of the year. But levels of optimism about the North’s prospects over the next ten years have fallen since April.

Jargon causes 1 in 3 people to 'worry' about making the wrong pensions decisions and almost three fifths are not confident enough to set up a personal pension. 8 million may have lost or forgotten pensions with more than 1 in 3 (34%) people who have never heard the term ‘pensions consolidation’.

Millions of the UK’s most vulnerable are to be offered a COVID-19 booster vaccine from next week.

Over the last few months, over 50% of scams were carried out on people in my age group. In case you are wondering, that is the over 50s. What is worrying, however, is that most people say they are confident that it would not happen to them. The best way to protect yourself is to know what to look out for. Here are some of the tricks that scammers are using right now.

HGV driving tests will be overhauled, meaning drivers will only need to take one test to drive both a rigid and articulated lorry, rather than having to take two separate tests (spaced 3 weeks apart). This will make around 20,000 more HGV driving tests available every year and mean drivers can gain their licence and enter the industry more quickly.

HS2 Ltd has today announced that according to its latest figures, over 20,000 people are now working on the project, one year on from the Prime Minister announcing the formal start of construction on Phase One from London to the West Midlands.

The Federation of Independent Retailers (NFRN) says the UK government has missed an opportunity to protect retailers and shop workers from attacks by failing to introduce a new Bill in parliament.

New polling reveals the extent to which low-paid workers have borne the brunt of the pandemic TUC warns the end of furlough and Universal Credit cut will be a hammer blow for low-paid workers and the Union body says without an economic reset post-pandemic the government’s levelling up agenda will be “doomed to failure”

The regulatory changes made by the MHRA today give further options for the deployment programme. Dr June Raine, MHRA Chief Executive said: "We are committed to getting safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines to the UK public. This means ensuring that existing COVID-19 vaccines can continue to be used in the most effective way possible.

National influenza and COVID-19 report, monitoring coronavirus (COVID-19) activity, seasonal flu and other seasonal respiratory illnesses. The main points from this week’s national influenza and COVID-19 surveillance report are: Surveillance indicators suggest that at a national level COVID-19 activity has been stable in week 35 of 2021, 29 August to 4 September 2021.

Students at universities across the North and Scotland can now save 50% on rail travel by using a simple code. As freshers travel to their new halls of residence and returning students head back to university, TransPennine Express is giving them a helping hand with the money saving code TPESTUDENT.

The TUC has called on ministers to revise their plans to fund social care, and instead raise Capital Gains Tax to provide a long-term funding boost for social care, and to raise the pay of all care workers to at least £10 an hour. A new report published by the union body says that increasing tax on wealth and assets would provide a much-needed cash injection for the care sector.

Proposed planning reforms to support hospitality businesses, markets and historic visitor attractions so that outdoor space can be used more easily.

From my reading of the business pages this week it would appear the arse has fallen out of men’s suits - or rather the market for men’s suits. According to Marks and Spencer, that trusty bellwether of what the great British public is wearing, or used to be wearing when we had to be dressed from top to bottom through the normal working week, sales in men’s suits has dropped markedly.