The government told MPs last autumn that the rise this summer would go ahead, but would be reduced from 5p to 3p.

BBC: Osborne postpones 3p fuel duty rise due in August

Although the price rise generated a short-term rise in profits last summer, in the first nine months of this year profits fell by 95% from a year earlier as customers walked away, and as the company bore the cost of an aggressive international expansion.

BBC: Netflix takes poison pill to ward off Icahn takeover

The theatre's critically acclaimed production of Bertolt Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Artuto Ui will return after running last summer.

BBC: Barnum musical to return at Chichester Festival Theatre

The new ranges have proved a success with a 36% rise in sales last summer, followed by this latest upbeat trading statement.

BBC: Next brushes off gloom

Much of the rise came from the rained-off international between India and Pakistan due to be staged in Glasgow last summer.

BBC: Record figures for Scots cricket