Here are the stories making the business headlines across Scotland and the UK this morning.
Net zero policies are pushing up inflation, says Bank of England rate setter
Net zero policies are pushing up inflation and hitting economic growth, a top Bank of England policymaker has warned.
Climate change policies including carbon taxes and emissions trading schemes risk raising costs for families as companies pass the extra costs on to their customers, said Catherine Mann, a member of the interest rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee.
Economists have found “that carbon taxes, public investments, and subsidies are all inflationary”, she told an audience at the University of Oxford.
Ms Mann added: “Evidence has suggested upward pressure on inflation [and] downward effects on output.”
UK to loosen post-Brexit chemical regulations further
The government is to loosen EU-derived laws on chemicals in a move experts say will increase the likelihood of toxic substances entering the environment.
Under new plans the government will reduce the “hazard” information that chemical companies must provide to register substances in the UK. The safety information provided about chemicals will be reduced to an “irreducible minimum”, which campaigners say will leave the UK “lagging far behind the EU”.
The UK’s scheme, called UK Reach, is falling behind the EU’s as it is. The UK has not been part of the bloc’s chemicals regulations scheme, EU Reach, since 2021. Eight rules restricting the use of hazardous chemicals have been adopted by the EU since Brexit, and 16 more are in the pipeline.
The UK has not banned any substances in that time and is considering just two restrictions, on lead ammunition and harmful substances in tattoo ink.
UK wage growth edges back to 7.7%
Wages continued to grow at one of the fastest paces on record in the three months to September, underlining that inflation in the UK will take time to return to the Bank of England’s 2% target.
Regular pay excluding bonuses increased 7.7% over the past three months, down slightly from the 7.8% growth in the previous three months, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The figure was in line with analysts’ expectations. It is also the third month in a row that pay has risen faster than inflation, meaning that real wages expanded 1.3% across the last quarter.
However, real pay still has some way to go to recover fully from the near two-year long cost of living crisis. Including bonuses, wages climbed 7.9%, well above forecasts for 7.3% growth.
Google gives Apple 36% of ad revenue from Safari browser, court hears
Google gives Apple a 36% cut of advertising revenue from its searches made in its Safari browser, a court has heard.
The previously unknown figure was supposed to remain confidential but was revealed on Monday during the antitrust trial against Google, where it stands accused of illegally maintaining its monopoly.
The US Department of Justice has accused Google of abusing its dominant position by paying billions to ensure that its search engine remains the default on smartphones and browsers.
Such exclusivity agreements with phone manufacturers and software developers have frozen out potential competitors to its search engine and have tightened its control over the web, prosecutors have argued.
This includes a deal with Apple to remain the iPhone browser’s default search engine, a contract previously believed to be worth up to $15billion (£12billion) a year.