Guess who’s working on a health data-slurping digital tool. Bzzt! Nope, it’s the UK Department for Work and Pensions

The UK’s Department for Work and Pensions is drawing up plans for an internal service that allows it to automate slurps of medical data on claimants to dole out health-related benefits. In an ad posted on the UK’s Digital Marketplace, DWP said the work was currently in alpha and it now wanted a supplier to deliver a technical proof of concept to expose NHS data to the department’s systems. The aim, it said, is to cut down the time and cost involved in gathering information the department needs to make a…

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UK spies using social media data for mass surveillance

Privacy rights group Privacy International says it has obtained evidence for the first time that UK spy agencies are collecting social media information on potentially millions of people. It has also obtained letters it says show the intelligence agencies’ oversight body had not been informed that UK intelligence agencies had shared bulk databases of personal data with foreign governments, law enforcement and industry — raising concerns about effective oversight of the mass surveillance programs. The documents have come out as a result of an ongoing legal challenge Privacy International has brought against UK intelligence…

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UK inflation steady at 2.3% in March business live

The pound is currently up 0.25% at $1.2441, having been as high as $1.2445 and as low as $1.2404. FXTM research analyst Lukman Otunuga said: Sterling was volatile on Tuesday, with prices oscillating between losses and gains after markets digested the UK’s steady 2.3% inflation figure for March, which was the highest level since September 2013. The ongoing currency weakness created by Brexit, coupled with rising oil prices has elevated inflation above the Bank of England’s 2% target, with speculation mounting over CPI following its positive trajectory this quarter. Although…

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Study finds UK sugar tax could save thousands from obesity, diabetes

File photograph of soft drinks bottles displayed on a shelf in a shop in London  (Copyright Reuters 2016) LONDON –  A planned levy on sugary drinks due to be introduced in Britain in April 2018 could significantly reduce the number of people who become obese and develop diabetes and tooth decay, scientists said on Thursday. In a study on the levy’s health impacts, researchers found the positive effect would be greatest if the drinks industry responds by reformulating products to cut sugar content, rather than keep the same formulations but…

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UK scientists on verge of curing HIV?

UK scientists on verge of curing HIV? A British man could become the first person in the world to be cured of HIV using a new therapy designed by a team of scientists from five UK universities. The therapy is combining standard antiretroviral drugs with another one that reactivates dormant HIV and a vaccine that induces the immune system to destroy the infected cells. Antiretoviral drugs alone are highly effective at stopping the virus from reproducing but do not eradicate the disease, so must be taken for life. The 44-year-old…

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JPMorgan could move thousands of staff out of UK: Report

a JPMorgan Chase & Co could be forced to move thousands of staff out of Britain if the country loses its automatic right to sell financial services to the European Union after last month’s Brexit vote, bank CEO Jamie Dimon told an Italian newspaper. Currently, banks based in the UK can sell services freely across the EU under a “passporting” system, considered the most significant feature of the EU single market for financial firms. But that is now in doubt after Britons voted to leave the bloc. “The key issue…

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