News round-up

Tax dives while profits soar

The biggest firms in Britain are paying a fifth less tax than they did 12 years ago, a Reuters report says.

The companies paid £5 billion less in corporation tax in the last financial year than in 2000/01. Their profits leapt by 65 percent over the same period.

Bankers grab £1 million each

Some 1,500 bankers in Britain “earned” £1 million each in 2011, new figures show. They grabbed the most at Barclays, where managers trousered an average of £1.2 million.

Energy firms in the ministry

The Tories are paying people from big energy firms to work at the Department of Energy. The staff come from Centrica, National Grid and ESB, Ireland’s biggest energy company.

Others, from Shell and ConocoPhillips, are working for free. But perhaps the firms will get something other than money from the arrangement.

Prince Charles in private plots

Prince Charles has had eight private meetings with government ministers over the past year. They include Tory education secretary Michael Gove. The Prince’s Teaching Institute says it aims to establish a new college of teaching to “inform education policy”.