16/02/2013 BBC Weekend News

Good afternoon. Chancellor George Osborne is calling for more

international action to tackle loopholes that allow companies to

avoid paying tax. At the G20 meeting of Finance Ministers in

Moscow, Mr Osborne said a coordinated, international

agreement could be the only way to police global businesses. Our

business correspondent Ben Thompson The money you spend here doesn't

always stay here. In a global economy, many well-known firms are

international with most operating online too. That means it's more

difficult to determine what tax they should pay, and crucially

where it's due. At the G20 meeting in Moscow today, Chancellor George

Osbourne says those tax rules must be reformed to prevent firms

shifting their profits around the world from countries with higher

tax to ones with lower tax, a practise that means the Treasury

loses millions of pounds a year. Then it's a loophole that allowed

the online retailer Amazon to make revenues of �3.4 billion but pay

just �1.8 million in tax. The internet firm Google earned �386

million but paid tax of just �6 million. The coffee giant Starbucks

made �398 million in the UK but paid nothing in UK tax. Following a

public backlash, Starbucks says it will now pay �10 million in tax

next year, but the Chancellor says there needs to be greater

transparency. What we want is a set of international rules so those

businesses come and do business in Britain, and Britain is now one of

the most competitive, one of the best places in the world to come

and do business, but when they come they also pay their taxes. The only

way you can do that is not by passing a law in Britain but

getting an international agreement with the rest of the world.

Countries may agree something needs to be done, but bringing together

so many complex tax systems won't be a simple process, and agreeing

where profit is made and where the tax is due won't be easy.

The Health Secretary has written to NHS managers in England urging them

not to prevent staff from speaking out about issues affecting patient

care. It comes after a former chief executive of a hospital trust in

Lincolnshire broke a gagging order to speak to the BBC about his

concerns. Tom Barton is with me now. Tom, what does Jeremy Hunt's letter

say? I've got a copy of the letter here. What he's saying is he wants

hospitals to stop using these gagging orders, warning them taking

legalistic approaches to whistle- blowing stops management from

identifying and fixing problems this. All comes after the Chief

Executive of a Lincolnshire hospital spoke to the BBC, breaking

a gagging order put on him after he was dismissed he says for putting

safety ahead of Whitehall targets. I have spoken to him this morning.

He's welcomed the letter from Jeremy Hunt, but he's also calling

for an independent investigation, claiming the Department of Health

can't adequately investigate itself. Tom, thank you.

Three men who were arrested by police on suspicion of passing

horsemeat off as beef have been released on bail as officials

continued to examine evidence from three more plants. Meanwhile, Tesco

today said it was reviewing its supply chain after horse DNA was

found in some of its processed beef. Laura Yates has been to Otley in

west Yorkshire to see how the scandal's affected consumer

confidence. Inside and outside this butcher's this morning, a queue of

people - each and every one determined to buy local meat.

know where it's come from and how - I used to work here years ago, so I

know what goes into everything, the pies, and you can't beat it. Would

you buy a ready meal from a supermarket? Not at the moment, no.

In the corner of the shop, a supplier's board. Most of their

meat comes from Yorkshire or from somewhere in Britain. People are

concerned about what we do. We trace ours from local farmers, and

we have a full chain of suppliers in place. Here and at another

butcher's down the road they have seen a 30% increase in trade in the

last week. I think you get better quality. You know what's in the

product. It doesn't surprise me. It concerns me that people are being

fed stuff that we're not aware of. Always a local butcher. Thank you.

As investigations continue, for now, at least, many people here say

they're thinking twice about their shopping habits.

Ireland's Prime Minister, Enda Kenny, will meet more than a dozen

survivors of the country's notorious Magdalene Laundries in

London this afternoon. 10,000 women and girls were forced to do unpaid

manual work in the laundries. The survivors have been demanding a

formal apology from the Irish Government for their treatment.

Nick Higham reports. They have been described as Ireland's gulag, the

laundries run by nuns where some 10,000 women and girls were sent to

work unpaid, supposedly charitable institutions. In reality, they were

harsh place, inmates, unmarried mothers, women guilty of petty

crimes or simply girls from broken homes. The last laundry in this

Dublin convent close as late as 1996. Earlier this month a

Government report showed the Irish state had been complicit in the

running of these institutions. Former inmates wanted compensation,

instead they got this - an expression of regret. The stigma of

the branding together of all the residents, all 10,000, in the

Magdalene Laundries, needs to be removed and should have been

removed long before this, and I really am sorry that never happened.

But earlier this week, survivors' representatives met the Taoiseach

in dublin. They spent three hours with them and believe he's now

ready to issue a full apology on behalf of the Government. He was

very nice and kind. We had to go over our stories again, so that was

quite tearful, but he said that was important that he could put a face

to the stories that's in the report. The Taoiseach's coming to London

especially to meet and here the stories of over a dozen survivors

living in the UK. Some women spent their whole lives in the laundries