Scott’s fund role
Bob Scott, founder of Aviva, the UK’s largest insurer, is an adviser to a £400 million fund being set up to buy final salary pension schemes, The Times has learnt. Aviva is thought to be interested in providing services to the fund, which is expected to be launched this month by Edmund Truell, the founder of Duke Street Capital.
Asda must pay
Asda has been ordered to pay £850,000 in compensation for anti-union activities. The supermarket chain must pay £2,500 each to 340 workers at a distribution centre in Washington, near Newcastle, after it bypassed their union, the GMB, to offer a 10 per cent pay increase conditional on ending collective bargaining.
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Bankruptcies soar
The number of people voluntarily asking the courts to declare them bankrupt has soared to record levels. In the final three months of last year, 10,666 individual petitions for voluntary insolvency came before the courts, up 44 per cent against a year earlier, according to the Department for Constitutional Affairs.