Companies that make implants for cosmetic surgery should have to keep a record of all patients who receive them, the Government was told yesterday. Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary, was urged by one of his predecessors to take action to prevent a repeat of the safety scare over breast implants. Mr Lansley will meet officials next week to discuss the concerns of women who may have received sub-standard implants made from low-grade silicone. He will examine all the evidence concerning the bankrupt French company that supplied the implants. Department of Health officials are cautious about changing rules, even though they provide no quick or certain way of identifying women potentially affected. But two influential Conservative figures called on Mr Lansley to act to ensure that patients who are given cosmetic implants that turn out to have defects can be

As economic gloom settles over Britain, forecasters from one well-known investment bank are taking a more upbeat view of the country’s longer-term prospects. Projections from Goldman Sachs suggest that the country’s relative fortunes will improve sharply in the coming decades, once it emerges from its current downswing. The investment bank’s latest long-term forecasts show Britain leapfrogging Germany, France and Japan in terms of wealth by the middle of the century. Only the US and Canada will have higher national income per head by 2050, it said. In terms of the overall size of the economy, however, Britain will slip back from seventh place to tenth, with China in first place followed by the US, India and the euro area. The figures come in a report updating Goldman’s assessment of the fortunes of the so-called BRIC economies — Brazil, Russia, India and China. The analysis suggests that