Oct 3 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the business pages of British newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
The Times
-UK government bond yields hit 5.020%, highest since the Bank of England was forced to intervene in the debt market to stem the fallout of Liz Truss's mini-budget and a fire sale in the pensions sector.
- Monthly grocery inflation of UK slid to -0.1% in September from 0.6% in August, according to the latest shop prices index published by the British Retail Consortium and NielsenIQ, for the first time in more than two years amid "fierce competition" between supermarkets to attract customers.
The Guardian
- Despite the high court ruling that ministers should disclose their communications for scrutiny, UK prime minister Rishi Sunak has failed to hand over his WhatsApp messages from his time as chancellor to the COVID inquiry.
- UK policing minister, Chris Philp said Britain's passport database could be used to catch shoplifters, burglars and other criminals under urgent plans to curb crime, plans to integrate data from the police national database (PND), the Passport Office and other national databases to help police find a match with the "click of one button".
The Telegraph
- British finance minister Jeremy Hunt told ministers to draw up plans to reduce the size of the Civil Service by 63,000 people to save 1 billion pounds ($1.21 billion) a year.
- UK's Environment Secretary Therese Coffey told the Tory conference that Britain will finally scrap "absurd" EU rules on the sale of bendy bananas almost four years after leaving the bloc.
Sky News
- Huge fireball lights up sky After lightning hit a gas tank at a processing facility near Yarnton, Oxfordshire.
- Petrochemicals billionaire, Jim Ratcliffe is considering to buy a minority stake in Manchester United Football Club , in an effort to end a nearly 10 months-long process to resolve the club's future ownership.
The Independent
- Sharon White, the chairman of the John Lewis Partnership to step down after five years, making her the shortest-serving chair in the partnership's 100-year history.
- UK Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Claire Coutinho said businesses will be able to use more of their rooftops to generate solar power in a bid to reduce the technology's presence in the countryside, also announced an additional 80 million pounds to fund insulation for social homes.
($1 = 0.8275 pounds) (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom)