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Charlie Gilmour, the son of Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, has been charged with violent disorder and theft of a mannequin leg during a student fees protest.
Gilmour, 21, was one of seven people charged by the Metropolitan Police as part of Operation Malone, which was launched after a number of high-profile protests in central London, and will appear at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court on February 10.
The Cambridge University student, who was among the thousands who protested in Trafalgar Square and Parliament Square on December 9, was photographed hanging from a Union Jack flag on the Cenotaph during the march.
He issued an apology the day after the demonstrations, describing it as a "moment of idiocy" and admitting he did not realise the monument in Whitehall commemorated Britain's war dead. He was arrested on December 12.
Gilmour, who has also been on the books of modelling agency Select Model Management, is the son of writer and journalist Polly Samson. His biological father is the poet and playwright Heathcote Williams but he was adopted by Mr Gilmour when his mother remarried.
The December 9 protest also saw rioters attack the car carrying the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall to the Royal Variety Performance as the demonstration descended into violence.
Two others, who were arrested on the day, have also been charged over the same protest. Christopher Hilliard, 22, of Wilmslow, Cheshire, and a 17-year-old man, also from Cheshire, were both charged with violent disorder and will appear at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court on February 10.
Three men were also charged with offences during the protest on November 24.
James Cross, 26, of Lewisham, south-east London, and Kevin Wilson-Web, 50, from Kensington, west London, were charged with theft of police equipment. Justin Sey, 28, from Barnet, north London, is charged with criminal damage to a Government building. James Jeffal, 19, from Willesden Lane, north London, is charged with causing fear of unlawful violence during the protests on November 30. They will all appear at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court on February 10.
Five others were cautioned for a range of offences including theft, assaulting a police officer and criminal damage.
Senior detectives will leave "no stone unturned" as they restart their inquiry into phone hacking allegations, the head of Scotland Yard has pledged.
Acting Commissioner Tim Godwin launched a vigorous defence of how his force has handled a steady stream of new claims linked to the News of the World.
Speaking at a meeting of the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA), he said investigators must now be left to follow the new evidence wherever it may lead.
Describing the new inquiry, Mr Godwin said: "It will be very robust and it will be under scrutiny as it should be.
"It will restore confidence in victims who feel they have not been given a service. It will be with no stone unturned. We have some of the most skilled investigators in the country and you will be proud of what they do."
The inquiry has been transferred to the Met's specialist crime directorate and will be led by Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers.
Mr Godwin said the new team of detectives responsible for the inquiry will work as "swiftly" as possible and the "proof of the pudding will be in the eating".
He said the Met is "not afraid" of being held to account over its decisions but detailed questions can only answered after the criminal process has finished.
Mr Godwin said: "The reality we are confronted with today is we have a full-blown investigation under way and we do not want to do anything that will undermine the prospect of any prosecutions that may occur. We need to allow Sue Akers and her team to robustly pursue the evidence and lines of inquiry, which is what everyone expects us to do.
"At the end of this process, when we draw a line under the legal process, and there are a number of judicial matters, there are questions people will want to ask."
The wife of former TV presenter Richard Keys, who resigned over the Sky Sports sexism row, has blasted the broadcaster as being "offside" in how it handled the controversy.
Keys announced his resignation on Wednesday night, following the sacking of Andy Gray on Tuesday.
The football pundits were dropped after they made sexist remarks about assistant referee Sian Massey before the Premier League game between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Liverpool at the weekend.
Speaking outside the couple's mansion home in Chobham, Surrey, Julia Keys said: "It's really sad. They (Keys and Gray) contributed so much, putting Sky on the map. Whether you like them personally or not, professionally there's very few who would knock them.
"I feel the wrong two guys were given the red card.
"It doesn't quite make sense in a way and it's questionable the way it has been handled. I think Sky was offside in the way it handled it.
"It's very sad after the career Richard has had that it has come to this but I do not see it as being the end of it."
When asked how she felt about the comments, she added: "With men there are little bits of you that never grow up.
"It's banter from the boys. What other people do not understand is the dynamics that go on in the studio.
"He (Keys) is very aware of the tensions that there are and it not being as relaxed as it would be unless there were playful shenanigans."
A man died during a jousting re-enactment because of failures to ensure a correct helmet was worn and failures to ensure his shield was appropriately assembled, a coroner has ruled.
Paul Anthony Allen died after a splinter went through the eye hole of his helmet, penetrating his eye and then brain, as the event at Rockingham Castle in Corby, Northamptonshire, was being filmed for Channel 4's Time Team programme.
The 54-year-old, of Chishill Road, Heyden, Cambridgeshire, died on September 20 2007 at University Hospital Coventry and Warwick following the incident seven days earlier.
After an inquest at Kettering Magistrates' Court, Northamptonshire Coroner Anne Pember gave a narrative verdict, saying there had been several failures resulting in the accident.
Mr Allen, who had never jousted before despite practising with a lance and shield, was hit by a splinter from a balsa wood tip designed to break on impact with the opponent's shield for safety, the inquest heard.
It broke off, as it was supposed to, but a piece of wood flew up through the eye-slit of his helmet, hitting his eye socket. Mr Allen was airlifted to hospital with the splinter of balsa wood still in his eye and his eye hanging from its socket, the inquest heard.
He had an operation to remove the splinter, which penetrated 5in (13cm) into his head, but his condition did not improve and he died of cardio-respiratory failure and a severe penetrating brain injury.
Ms Pember said: "There were failures - a) to engage a rider with a proven track record of lance-breaking jousting, b) to ensure the correct helmet or helm for jousting was used and c) to ensure that the shield had been appropriately assembled for jousting purposes."
Mr Allen's wife, Sharon McCann, said after the inquest that her husband had died doing something he loved, adding: "If he could have written his script this would have been his chosen end."
"I believe that those involved were acting in good faith. With hindsight there may be lessons to be learned which, I hope, will prevent anything similar happening again."
A total of 338 people with flu have died in the UK since September but new cases of the disease are falling.
Health Protection Agency (HPA) data reveals the death toll is up on the 254 reported last week.
Of the 297 cases where information was available, most (92%, or 273 deaths) were linked to swine flu.
Of the 306 cases with information on age, 10 were under five, 14 were aged five to 14, 217 were aged 15 to 64, and 65 were 65 or over.
Around three-quarters of people who died were in an at-risk group, meaning they had an underlying health condition such as heart disease or diabetes, or were aged 65 or over.
A similar proportion had not had the seasonal flu jab.
In the past week, the number of GP consultations in England for flu or suspected flu has fallen to 40.7 per 100,000, down from 66.5 per 100,000 the previous week. On December 30, the peak was 124.4 per 100,000.
Professor John Watson, head of the respiratory diseases department at the HPA, said: "Our latest flu report suggests levels of flu are continuing to decline across the UK and we appear to be over the peak of activity.
"However, flu is still circulating and it is important that people remember to practise good cough and hand hygiene, such as covering your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough and sneeze, and then disposing of these as soon as possible to stop it spreading in the community."
Thursday's data also showed that swine flu is no longer the dominant strain of flu in circulation. Flu type B is now the most common strain, experts said.
Ministers have been accused of "hiding" student loan reforms in the new Education Bill.
A clause in the newly published Bill will make higher-earning graduates pay back their university loans at a higher rate of interest.
It emerged on Wednesday that the measure had been tacked on to the Education Bill, which focuses mainly on school reforms.
Sally Hunt, general secretary of the University and College Union (UCU), said: "The general public will see this for what it is - a stealth tax on learning and achievement - and it doesn't matter what piece of legislation the Government tries to hide it in.
"Sneaking these plans into a schools Bill is yet another indication that the Government has lost the argument on student funding and is terrified of further scrutiny of such a punitive policy."
Pam Tatlow, chief executive of university think-tank million+, said: "The plans tagged on to the Education Bill give the Secretary of State free rein to set uncapped and commercial rates of interest on student loans.
"There is no commitment to protect the poorest graduates from commercial rates and no promise, as previously announced, to cap the interest rate at 3% plus RPI or set a tapered rate of interest for those earning between £21,000 per annum and £41,000 per annum so that only the very highest-earning graduates will be subjected to higher interest rates."
Aaron Porter, president of the National Union of Students, said: "Under the Government's scheme, higher interest rates will hit those students who have to take out fee loans the hardest, whilst wealthier students who do not have to take out loans will escape higher interest charges."
Universities are covered by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Bill was published by the Department for Education
The Government has said that the proposal was included because the changes need to be in place before higher tuition fees, and the new funding system that comes with it, come into force next year.
Business Secretary Vince Cable has said that he was "pretty important" to the coalition Government, and did not see himself resigning from the Cabinet before the next election.
Mr Cable - who has launched a consultation on industrial tribunal reform - told reporters at a Westminster Press Gallery lunch that he had a good relationship with Prime Minister David Cameron.
Mr Cable said: "I see myself as pretty important to the coalition, both in terms of running the department and the economic input from the Liberal Democrats. I have a pretty good relationship with Downing Street, a very good relationship with the Prime Minister."
Asked about bookmakers consistently making him favourite to be the first Liberal Democrat to quit the Cabinet, and whether he would still be in Government at the next election, Mr Cable said: "I think I will. Bookies are often wrong."
He said he was confident his party would survive the experience of being in coalition with the Conservatives: "Of course we will survive.
"We have taken a political hit in the short run, but there are pluses. There are an awful lot of people who never even considered voting for us as a party who now are considering it because they believe we are serious.
"This short-term picture will turn around. We have been written off lots of times before. I'm very confident we will come through this."
Mr Cable, who said talks with banks about bonuses and lending were ongoing, also shared a joke with reporters about bankers.
He asked what the difference was between a cat being found dead on a motorway and a banker being found dead on a carriageway.
"There were skid marks around the cat," said Mr Cable.
A second under-age girl allegedly took part in parties at a villa owned by Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, receiving jewels and other gifts in exchange, prosecutors have said.
A parliamentary committee examined 200 further pages of documents drawn up by prosecutors investigating Mr Berlusconi on suspicion he paid for sex with a 17-year-old Moroccan girl.
The documents include references to another minor, a Brazilian, according to Italian news agency LaPresse and other news reports.
The revelations that another minor might have been at some of Mr Berlusconi's parties widens the probe and potentially adds to the 74-year-old leader's woes.
Mr Berlusconi has denied ever paying for sex and called the allegations against him "outrageous".
Milan prosecutors sent the additional documentation from their investigation to the parliamentary committee to back up their request to search some of Mr Berlusconi's properties.
The prosecutors had already provided almost 400 pages of documents and alleged evidence against Mr Berlusconi last week.
Mr Berlusconi is a member of the lower house of parliament. The house's members enjoy parliamentary immunity from arrest or searches in criminal probes, unless the committee decides otherwise on a case-by-case basis.
The new documents reportedly include wiretaps of conversations between the young women who attended Mr Berlusconi's parties, alleged evidence of payments to them and reports from police searches conducted earlier this month at some of the women's homes.
The most potentially dangerous revelations involve the Brazilian woman. The documents list necklaces, bracelets, pendants and other jewels she allegedly received "in exchange for her repeated participation at parties at Berlusconi's villas", according to excerpts of the documents cited by LaPresse.
Charlie Gilmour, the son of Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, has been charged with violent disorder and theft of a mannequin leg during a student fees protest.
Gilmour, 21, was one of seven people charged by the Metropolitan Police as part of Operation Malone, which was launched after a number of high-profile protests in central London, and will appear at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court on February 10.
The Cambridge University student, who was among the thousands who protested in Trafalgar Square and Parliament Square on December 9, was photographed hanging from a Union Jack flag on the Cenotaph during the march.
He issued an apology the day after the demonstrations, describing it as a "moment of idiocy" and admitting he did not realise the monument in Whitehall commemorated Britain's war dead. He was arrested on December 12.
Gilmour, who has also been on the books of modelling agency Select Model Management, is the son of writer and journalist Polly Samson. His biological father is the poet and playwright Heathcote Williams but he was adopted by Mr Gilmour when his mother remarried.
The December 9 protest also saw rioters attack the car carrying the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall to the Royal Variety Performance as the demonstration descended into violence.
Two others, who were arrested on the day, have also been charged over the same protest. Christopher Hilliard, 22, of Wilmslow, Cheshire, and a 17-year-old man, also from Cheshire, were both charged with violent disorder and will appear at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court on February 10.
Three men were also charged with offences during the protest on November 24.
James Cross, 26, of Lewisham, south-east London, and Kevin Wilson-Web, 50, from Kensington, west London, were charged with theft of police equipment. Justin Sey, 28, from Barnet, north London, is charged with criminal damage to a Government building. James Jeffal, 19, from Willesden Lane, north London, is charged with causing fear of unlawful violence during the protests on November 30. They will all appear at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court on February 10.
Five others were cautioned for a range of offences including theft, assaulting a police officer and criminal damage.
The row over England's publicly owned forests has continued after the Government unveiled plans for a £250 million sell-off - but insisted the future of the country's woodlands will be protected.
The proposals put out for consultation detail measures to dispose of up to 100% of England's 258,000 hectare public forest estate, which is currently managed by the Forestry Commission, over the next 10 years.
They include the sale of leaseholds for commercially valuable forests to timber companies, measures to allow communities, charities and even local authorities to buy or lease woods and plans to transfer well-known "heritage" woods such as the New Forest into the hands of charities.
News of the plans for the 18% of England's forests that are publicly owned had caused widespread consternation, with fears that well-loved woodlands would come under threat from golf courses and holiday parks or be cut down for timber, and that the public would lose access to forests.
Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman said she hopes the publication of the public consultation will prove many people's concerns unfounded.
The Government has already announced plans to sell 15% of the public estate, with the hope that the sales will raise £100 million to help balance Defra's books, and Thursday's proposals deal with the remaining 85% of public woods in England.
Downing Street moved to quell fears over the fate of woods in public ownership, insisting heritage forests would not be sold to the highest bidder or public access removed, butt the details of the public consultation appeared to sow more concerns, criticism and confusion in some quarters.
Shadow environment secretary Mary Creagh said the consultation was little more than warm words and window dressing on an act of "environmental vandalism".
Up to half the public estate is commercially valuable forest, which would be sold on a 150-year leasehold rather than a freehold basis, allowing the Government to impose conditions on timber companies to protect public access and ensure environmental standards, while another 26,000 hectares, or up to 10% of the estate, could be sold or leased to communities, charities or even local authorities.
Sue Holden, chief executive of the Woodland Trust, warned ministers their plans are unrealistic, while the Campaign to Protect Rural England said questions remain unanswered about important woodlands other than the high-profile forests named in the consultation, and the strength of guarantees on ensuring rights of access.
Anti-terror talks between the United States and the UK are due to be held.
Plans to strengthen cyber, cargo and aviation security against terrorism and natural disasters will be discussed in the private talks between Home Secretary Theresa May, Transport Secretary Philip Hammond and the US Homeland Secretary Janet Napolitano, US officials confirmed.
It comes after Scotland Yard said a bomb found on a cargo plane at East Midlands Airport in October was timed to detonate over the eastern seaboard of the US.
Matt Chandler, a spokesman for the US Department of Homeland Security, said the talks would focus on "collaborative efforts to strengthen cyber, cargo and aviation security".
The discussions will also cover efforts to "ensure the security and resilience of the global supply chain against terrorism, transnational crime and natural disasters while facilitating the flow of travel and commerce", he said.
The Home Office said it did not comment on private talks.
Last year, Scotland Yard said the bomb, disguised as an ink cartridge, was found on a UPS aircraft by Leicestershire police officers shortly after 3.30am on October 29 last year and was timed to go off some seven hours later over the eastern seaboard of the US. It was one of two bombs thought to have been made and dispatched by al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.
As part of new security measures brought in following the foiled attacks, countries sending air freight to the UK are being "graded" according to risk and rules which allowed some freight not to be rescreened if it was merely passing through the UK were amended.
The FBI and Homeland Security Department in the US warned local officials across the country that packages from abroad with no return address and excessive postage required a second examination.
In the UK, the Government's national security strategy also highlighted attacks on computer networks as one of the country's biggest emerging threats.
The Health Secretary's claims over why the NHS must be reformed are questionable, according to a leading health economist.
Andrew Lansley has said the UK's outcomes when it comes to health issues such as heart attack and cancer are among the poorest in Europe, despite similar spending.
But John Appleby, chief economist at the King's Fund think-tank, has now challenged these claims and called for a cautious interpretation of the evidence.
While UK heart attack rates in 2006 were twice those in France, the UK will actually have lower rates by 2012 if trends continue, he wrote in the British Medical Journal (BMJ).
"Comparing just one year - and with a country with the lowest death rate for myocardial infarction (heart attack) in Europe - reveals only part of the story," he said.
"Not only has the UK had the largest fall in death rates from myocardial infarction between 1980 and 2006 of any European country, if trends over the past 30 years continue, it will have a lower death rate than France as soon as 2012. These trends have been achieved with a slower rate of growth in healthcare spending in the UK compared with France and at lower levels of spending every year for the past half century."
He urged caution when interpreting figures for health outcomes because the "trajectory for many causes of death swoops up and down over decades - often linked to changes in lifestyle behaviours rather than spending on healthcare."
He added: "Our apparently poor comparison with other countries on cancer deaths has also been a key argument for reforming the NHS. However, comparisons are not straightforward and depend where you look. Death rates for lung cancer in men, for instance, rose steadily to a peak in the UK in 1979, but since then they have steadily fallen, mirroring long-term changes in smoking patterns, and are now lower than for French men, where the peak death rate occurred over a decade later in the 1990s."
Health Minister Lord Howe said the NHS "needs to respond to the challenges of the 21st century".
He added: "Our proposals will put the NHS on a more sustainable footing for the future, empower clinicians to design services in the best interests of patients and ensure it is comparable to the world's best-performing health systems."
David Cameron will warn that the scale of the challenge facing the British economy is "immense" and requires a long-term "transformation".
The Prime Minister will stress again that he has no intention of easing the Government's deficit-reduction measures, saying there are "no shortcuts" to a stronger economy.
While stopping short of setting a time-frame for the UK's recovery, he will speak of the need for new factories to be built and their products brought to market.
Despite this week's figures showing that the economy shrank by 0.5% in the last quarter, he will insist the coalition Government's plan for the economy is already yielding success.
In a speech to some of the world's most powerful business leaders and politicians at the World Economic Forum in Davos, he will say: "We can't just flick on the switch of Government spending or pump the bubble back up.
"Making this transformation - and it is a transformation - requires painstaking work and it takes time. It involves paying down billions of pounds of debt. New plants and factories need to be built. New products designed. New innovations taken to market. New businesses nurtured.
"It's going to be tough - but we must see it through. The scale of the task is immense, so we need to be bold in order to build this economy of the future. The British people know these things. They understand there are no shortcuts to a better future."
He will reject Labour's claims that the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition is sacrificing growth with overly aggressive cuts and insist that reducing the deficit cannot be delayed.
"Those who argue that dealing with our deficit and promoting growth are somehow alternatives are wrong. You cannot put off the first in order to promote the second," he will say. "Average government debt in the EU is almost 80% of GDP. Some countries are borrowing 5%, 6% or 7% of GDP again this year. The figure for the UK is more than 10%. This is clearly unsustainable and action cannot be put off."
Despite the negative growth figures from the Office for National Statistics this week, the Prime Minister will say "progress" is already under way on the economy. He will point to the credit ratings agencies' confirmation that Britain's triple-A credit rating will not be downgraded and falls in market interest rates since the coalition took office.
Hundreds of Sure Start centres face closure this year and thousands of others are cutting services and have warned of job losses, according to a new report.
The closures and reduced services, caused by Government cuts, could see 60,000 families lose their local centre, it is claimed.
A study by families charity 4Children and the Daycare Trust suggests 250 Sure Start Children's Centres are expected to close, 2,000 will provide a reduced service and 3,100 will have a smaller budget.
Staff at 1,000 of the centres - which offer a range of services to families with young children, including help for parents wanting to find work - have been warned about the threat of redundancy, according to the survey of almost 1,000 centre managers across England.
Anne Longfield, chief executive of 4Children said: "Families across the country, particularly the most vulnerable, depend on Sure Start Children's Centres to help get their children off to the best start in life. We know that local authorities have some extremely difficult spending decisions to make but investment now will lead to real savings in the long term.
"Local authorities need to find new ways to ensure Sure Start Children's Centres earn their keep by allowing them to become genuine hubs for all children and families services in communities, reducing replication and improving impacts. Voluntary and community organisations stand ready to help councils find innovative solutions to these funding dilemmas."
Anand Shukla, acting chief executive of the Daycare Trust, said: "Behind every children's centre facing closure is a community of families devastated at losing one of their most valued local services."
Labour MP Frank Field, an adviser to the Government on poverty and life chances, said: "It is inconceivable that we can make the foundation years effective if Sure Start Children's Centres all over the place are being slaughtered. Local authorities must seek to employ innovative methods to ensure families - especially the poorest families - do not lose the vital support they need."
Children's minister Sarah Teather said: "Sure Start is at the heart of our vision for early intervention - that's why we have ensured there is enough money in the system to maintain the network of Sure Start Children's Centres, as well as providing new investment for health visitors.
"I understand that local authorities are facing difficult decisions which require local discussion and hard choices. Many areas haven't yet made final decisions, but what's important is that communities have access to services that support children and families, particularly the most disadvantaged. The new Early Intervention Grant gives local authorities the freedom and flexibility to make the best decisions for the families in their communities."
The sexism row sparked by comments made by two Sky Sports presenters has taken a new turn as a businesswoman attacked West Ham vice-chairman Karren Brady for speaking out for women.
Katie Hopkins, a former Apprentice contestant, weighed into the debate and criticised Ms Brady, who said the exchange between Richard Keys and Andy Gray about football official Sian Massey "made her blood boil".
Appearing on BBC's Question Time, Hopkins also said Sky Sports had "lost its sense of humour" hours after Keys' wife said the broadcaster was "offside" in its handling of the matter.
Keys announced his resignation on Wednesday night, following the sacking of Andy Gray on Tuesday.
Speaking outside the couple's mansion home in Chobham, Surrey, Julia Keys said: "Whether you like them personally or not, professionally there are very few who would knock them. I feel the wrong two guys were given the red card. It doesn't quite make sense in a way and it's questionable the way it has been handled. I think Sky was offside in the way it handled it."
Mrs Keys added the suggestion Ms Massey did not know the offside rule was "banter from the boys". "What other people do not understand is the dynamics that go on in the studio," she added.
Hopkins made similar comments, claiming the nation should be "proud" of its banter, which stoked a strong reaction from the Question Time panel and audience.
She said: "I think women actually don't want equal treatment. It's a tough world out there and what a lot of women are asking for, and you can look aghast at this, is special treatment. If you look at all-female shortlists for positions - is that equal treatment or is that special treatment?"
She later added: "Do we want a world which is completely void of colour? Do we want everything to be magnolia? No we don't. I think we need banter and I think those poor guys really died on their swords and have been stabbed in the back by people like Karren Brady."
Former Conservative MP Edwina Currie held her head in her hands at the remarks, while private secretary to Labour leader Ed Miliband Chuka Umunna said: "I don't think, Katie, you're doing anyone any favours this evening."
Two men are due to appear in court charged with stirring up hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation in the first prosecution of its kind.
Razwan Javed, 30, and Kabir Ahmed, 27, are accused of handing out a leaflet called The Death Penalty? outside a mosque in Derby, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.
The leaflet is understood to have called for homosexuals to be executed.
The pair will appear at Derby Magistrates' Court today charged with stirring up hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation.
CPS lawyer Sue Hemming said: "The charges relate to the distribution of a leaflet, The Death Penalty?, outside the Jamia Mosque in Derby in July 2010 and through letterboxes during the same month.
"This is the first ever prosecution for this offence and it is the result of close working between the Crown Prosecution Service and Derbyshire Police."
Phone users with some of the UK's major companies have been charged the higher VAT rate for calls made in December - but are not entitled to a refund, they have been warned.
Price comparison website uSwitch said customers of companies including Orange, Three, T-Mobile and Virgin Media have been charged the 20% VAT rate on all calls and texts in the latest billing period that were not pre-paid, including those made in December before the increase took effect.
However, bills are proving a lottery for customers, with other companies including BT, O2, Sky, Vodafone and TalkTalk opting to charge the lower 17.5% rate on calls made before VAT increased on January 4.
The higher rate would hit those who exceeded their "free" allocation and those who made extra calls over the festive period, uSwitch said.
HM Revenue and Customs rules say companies who provide a continuous supply of service can calculate VAT at the time of billing, rather than when the calls were made, meaning customers will not be entitled to a refund. However, companies can choose to charge 17.5% on the services provided up to January 3 and 20% on the remainder.
All VAT charges must go to the Treasury, meaning companies do not profit from applying the higher rate ahead of January 4.
USwitch said some mobile networks had also taken the opportunity to introduce a series of price changes alongside the VAT increase, ranging from more expensive calls and texts to the removal of free voicemail and increased billing fees.
USwitch spokesman Ernest Doku said: "The bizarre thing is the phone firms are not going to make any extra money from this situation - it all goes to the Inland Revenue. This is lazy billing and customers are bearing the brunt of it while the tax man is rubbing his hands with glee."
A Virgin Media spokesman said: "Whilst VAT is outside of Virgin Media's control, as a customer-focused home entertainment provider, in order to make these increases as manageable for our customers as possible, we have rounded down the VAT increases to the nearest penny. However whilst most services are billed in advance, for items that are billed in arrears, such as telephone calls, these items are charged at the prevailing VAT rate at the time of invoicing as per HMRC guidelines for continuous services."
T-Mobile, Orange and Three all offered to speak to any concerned customers.
Scotland Yard is battling to stop the phone hacking scandal spiralling out of control amid a storm of fresh revelations.
Acting Commissioner Tim Godwin pledged to leave "no stone unturned" as detectives restarted a "swift and robust" inquiry into the actions of staff at the News of the World.
He vigorously defended keeping the case closed for four years saying it was reopened in the light of "highly significant" new information passed to police by the newspaper.
Detectives must consider where the dossier of information will lead them under the full glare of the media spotlight as alleged victims of the controversy continue to emerge.
The move came as a steady flow of potentially incendiary developments piled further pressure on the newspaper and police, including Labour frontbencher and former Cabinet minister Tessa Jowell, who said she has contacted police after her mobile phone company alerted her to an apparent attempt to access her voicemail last week.
Actress Leslie Ash and her ex-footballer partner Lee Chapman are preparing legal action over fears their mobile phone messages were intercepted while she battled a life-threatening infection. And court documents reportedly showed designer Kelly Hoppen, the former stepmother of actress Sienna Miller, suspects her phone was targeted as recently as last Spring.
The new police inquiry is the most significant development in the controversy since the News of the World's royal editor was imprisoned almost exactly four years ago in 2007. Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire were jailed at the Old Bailey after they admitted intercepting messages by using industry codes to access voicemails.
The Met acted after detectives were handed information uncovered earlier this week during an internal inquiry, including a trawl of emails held on company servers, at the newspaper.
Ian Edmondson, the newspaper's head of news, was sacked two days ago after evidence emerged that he was linked to the hacking of mobile phones belonging to high profile individuals. He had been named in documents lodged on behalf of Miss Miller as part of a civil case brought by her legal representatives at the High Court after they obtained police papers.
The police inquiry will be led by Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers, an expert in organised crime who helped Helen Mirren research her role as a senior woman detective in the TV drama Prime Suspect. Ms Akers takes the case from Acting Deputy Commissioner John Yates who has been left to focus on his central role of protecting Britain from the threat of terrorism.
Amazon, the world's biggest online retailer, has disappointed investors after it missed sales targets and said profits will take a knock as it ramps up investment.
The company said revenues jumped 36% to $12.95 billion (£8.2 billion) in the final quarter of 2010 as sales of electronic books for its Kindle electronic device outsold paperbacks in America, but the figure still fell just short of analysts' expectations.
Profits climbed 8% to $416 million (£261 million) but shares in Amazon fell by about 9% on Wall Street after the company said it expected earnings to drop in the current quarter as it invested more on technology.
The company does not break out figures for its UK business but said its Kindle electronic book reader was its best selling product in the final quarter of 2010, followed by the DVD of Toy Story 3.
Amazon UK took orders for more than 2.3 million items on its busiest day in the run-up to Christmas on Monday December 6.
Chris North, managing director of Amazon in the UK, said trading had been strong over the Christmas period although the snow in December meant that Amazon had to warn customers that deliveries would take longer.
Mr North said Amazon would create 750 jobs when it opened a new fulfilment centre to deal with orders in Dunfermline by the end of 2011.
Amazon started life as an online book seller but has expanded into other categories, most recently grocery, pet supplies and musical instruments. Its latest venture, which started yesterday, has seen it add lingerie to its range.
Amazon this month took full control of film and games subscription business Lovefilm in a deal reported to have valued the company at £200 million, and also owns the film website IMDb.
Mr North did not give details about sales of the Kindle reader and the electronic books that run on it in the UK, but said: "It is going in the same direction as in the US and the Kindle is now our best selling product of all time."
