Business
Holland & Barrett and Centrica among firms fined for underpaying staff
A number of firms have been fined by the government for failing to pay some of their staff the minimum wage.
Centrica, which owns British Gas, Holland & Barrett and EG Group are among the 491 employers named by The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) for underpaying their workers over several years.
The companies will pay a fine amounting to a combined £10.2 million as a result of breaking the rules.
Pay for some staff fell short of the national minimum wage, or the national living wage, which is what the government calls the minimum wage for those aged over 21.
In total, around 42,000 people have been repaid by their employers after being left out of pocket, the DBT said.
EG Group short-changed its workers the most, according to the government’s latest investigation of pay between 2018 and 2023.
The company, which was co-founded by the billionaire Issa Brothers, but who have since stepped back from leading the firm, failed to pay £824,384 to 3,317 workers.
This meant individual employees were underpaid about £250 on average.
The company has significantly reduced the size of its UK operations over the past year, selling its UK petrol forecourts business and Cooplands bakeries. It still runs Starbucks franchise stores across the UK.
Another in the top 10 was Centrica, which owns British Gas, having failed to pay £167,815 to 356 workers – amounting to about £460 on average.
High street retailers Go Outdoors and Holland & Barrett were also identified by the DBT in its latest naming round.
Go Outdoors was number seven on the list, owing £240,106 to 2,058 workers.
Holland & Barrett was ninth, having failed to pay £153,079 to 2,551 employees.
The national living wage was £11.44 in the year to the end of March, and has risen to £12.21 since April.
The minimum wage for 18-20-year-olds rose to £10 this year, and for apprentices and those aged under 18 it rose to £7.55.
The DBT released a list of more than 500 employers in June that underpaid workers between 2015 and 2022, including Pizza Express, Lidl and British Airways.
Business Secretary Peter Kyle said: “Every worker deserves a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work, and this government will not tolerate rogue employers who short-change their staff.
“I know that no employer wants to end up on one of these lists. But our Plan to Make Work Pay cracks down on those not playing by the rules.”
A spokeswoman for Holland & Barrett said: “Holland & Barrett has been named by the government under the National Minimum Wage Naming Scheme, following a historic issue dating back to 2015–2021 which was fully resolved in 2022.
“This was not a case of deliberate underpayment. The issue stemmed from legacy practices such as requiring team members to wear specific shoes, unpaid training completed at home, and time spent preparing for shifts at our Burton distribution site.
“All arrears – totalling around £150,000 across the six-year period – were repaid in full once identified, and we acted swiftly to upgrade processes and systems.
“While we respect the transparency of the scheme, we are disappointed that naming has occurred over three years after the matter was settled.”
EG Group, Centrica and Go Outdoors have been contacted for comment.
The logo for the Food and Drug Administration is seen ahead of a news conference at the Health and Human Services Headquarters in Washington, April 22, 2025.
Nathan Posner | Anadolu | Getty Images
A key U.S. Food and Drug Administration official who oversees vaccines and biotech treatments will step down from the agency following multiple decisions that raised concerns within the industry.
Vinay Prasad, director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, will leave the FDA at the end of April, an agency spokesperson confirmed on Friday. It is his second departure from the position: He briefly left the post in July following backlash over his regulatory decisions, and returned only two weeks later in August.
In a post on X, FDA Commissioner Marty Makary said the FDA will appoint a successor before Prasad returns next month to the University of California San Francisco, where he taught before taking the FDA position last year. Makary said Prasad “got a tremendous amount accomplished” during his tenure at the agency.
Prasad’s decision to step down comes after criticism of the FDA mounted within the biotech and pharmaceutical industry and among former health officials. In the past year, the agency has denied or discouraged the approval applications of at least eight drugs, according to RTW Investments, after taking issue with data the companies used to support their applications. The FDA also initially refused to review Moderna’s flu shot before it later reversed course.
All of those companies accused the FDA of reversing previous guidance about the evidence they could use to back their applications, sparking criticism within the industry that an unreliable regulatory process could stifle development of drugs for hard-to-treat diseases.
A former FDA official who spoke to CNBC on the condition of anonymity to speak freely on the issue called the reversals the worst kind of regulatory uncertainty because companies say they are being told one thing and then experience another.
In a statement earlier Friday, an FDA spokesperson said there was “no regulatory uncertainty,” adding the agency “makes decisions based on the evidence, but does not make assurances about outcomes.” The spokesperson said the FDA is “conducting rigorous, independent reviews and not rubber-stamping approvals.”
The most recent controversy came after the FDA discouraged UniQure from applying for expedited approval of its experimental treatment for Huntington’s disease.
The agency, which underwent staff cuts and an overhaul under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has faced broader backlash for its drug and vaccine approvals process. Critics have worried the agency could stifle the development of new treatments and risk the safety of patients.
The Wall Street Journal earlier reported Prasad’s departure.
Energy Minister Saad al-Kaabi says oil could hit $150 a barrel if the Iran conflict continues over the coming weeks.
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Us India Oil Waiver: ‘Releases the pressure on other refineries’: US says India’s Russian oil waiver is a short-term step to stabilise global prices – The Times of India
The United States has said its decision to grant India a temporary waiver to purchase certain Russian oil supplies is a short-term move aimed at stabilising global crude prices amid supply disruptions linked to tensions in the Middle East.US energy secretary Chris Wright said the measure is intended to quickly bring oil stored in floating reserves into the global market and ease immediate supply constraints.
Speaking to ABC News Live, Wright said large volumes of Russian crude are currently stored in tankers around southern Asia and that Washington had encouraged India to buy these cargoes.“We need to get oil on the market in the short term. In the long term, supplies are abundant. There’s no worry there,” Wright said, adding that the temporary step was necessary as oil prices were rising due to constraints in shipments passing through the Strait of Hormuz.“As oil gets bid up a little bit because of those constraints coming out of the Straits of Hormuz, we’re taking a short-term action to say all this floating Russian oil storage that’s around southern Asia,” he said.Wright said the US had asked India to absorb those cargoes. “We’ve reached out to our friends in India and said, ‘Buy that oil. Bring it into your refineries.’ That pulls stored oil immediately into Indian refineries and releases the pressure on other refineries around the world,” he added.He stressed that the waiver does not represent a shift in Washington’s stance toward Moscow. “This is no change in policy towards Russia. This is a very brief change in policy just to keep oil prices down a little bit better than we could otherwise,” Wright said.Earlier in the day, US treasury secretary Scott Bessent announced a 30-day waiver allowing Indian refiners to purchase Russian oil cargoes stranded at sea.“To enable oil to keep flowing into the global market, the treasury department is issuing a temporary 30-day waiver to allow Indian refiners to purchase Russian oil,” Bessent said in a post on X.
Indian refiners step up purchases
Following the waiver, Indian refiners have begun purchasing large volumes of Russian oil floating in Asian waters, reported news agency PTI, citing sources.The companies have snapped up around 20 million barrels of crude, mostly from non-sanctioned entities, though they are seeking legal clarity on whether the exemption also allows purchases from sanctioned firms.The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has issued a licence permitting the delivery and offloading of Russian crude loaded on vessels before March 5, 2026, with transactions allowed until April 4, 2026.The move comes as the widening West Asia conflict disrupts energy shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, through which nearly 40–50 per cent of India’s crude imports typically pass.India, which holds reserves covering roughly 25 days of crude demand, has turned to Russian cargoes at sea to ensure domestic fuel supplies remain stable. Indian refiners had already been importing about one million barrels of Russian oil per day in recent months.Industry estimates cited by PTI suggest around 15 million barrels of Russian crude are currently floating in the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, while additional cargoes are waiting near Singapore and other routes that could reach Indian ports within weeks.Analysts say the waiver provides short-term relief for India’s energy security, though competition from other buyers, particularly China, may limit the volume of additional Russian oil available.
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