The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) climbed to 3%, a level it last reached in April 2012, and up from 2.9% in August. The pick-up in inflation raises the likelihood of an increase in interest rates - currently 0.25% - next month. The figures are significant because state pension payments from April 2018 will rise in line with September's CPI. Under the "triple lock" guarantee, the basic state pension rises by a rate equal to September's CPI rate, earnings growth or 2.5%, whichever is the greatest. At the moment, the full new state pension is £159.55 per week, equivalent to £8,296.60 per year. Business rates will go up by September's Retail Prices Index (RPI) of 3.9%. The fall in the pound since last year's Brexit vote has been one factor behind the rise in the inflation rate, as the cost of imported goods has risen. ONS head of inflation Mike Prestwood said: "Food prices and a range of transport costs helped to push up inflation in September. These effects were partly offset by clothing prices that rose less strongly than this time last year. Inflation has hit a five year high and is now 0.9% above the rate of wage growth - meaning that the incomes squeeze is becoming tighter. And if you are employed in the public sector - where pay rises are capped at 1% - or rely on benefits - which are frozen - that squeeze is even tighter."

The performance of hospitals across the UK has slumped with targets for cancer, A&E and planned operations now being missed en masse, BBC research shows. Nationally England, Wales and Northern Ireland have not hit one of their three key targets for 18 months. Only Scotland has had any success in the past 12 months - hitting its A&E target three times. Ministers accepted growing demand had left the NHS struggling to keep up as doctors warned patients were suffering. The findings are being revealed as the BBC launches its online NHS Tracker project, which allows people to see how their local service is performing on three key waiting time targets: Four-hour A&E waits, 62-day cancer care and planned operations and treatment. The BBC has looked at performance nationally as well as locally across the 135 hospital trusts in England and 26 health boards in the rest of the UK. Locally there is just one service in the whole of the UK - run by Luton and Dunstable NHS Trust - which has managed to hit all three targets each time over the past 12 months. Hospital staff the BBC has talked to have described how shortages of doctors and nurses, a lack of money and inadequate room in A&E departments in particular was making it difficult, sometimes impossible, to see patients quickly enough. While overall the vast majority of people are still being seen in time.

A fuel spill, broken down vehicles and an emergency viaduct repair were behind the most severe delays. Traffic analysts Inrix said drivers and businesses lost millions of pounds in wasted fuel and time. They looked at disruption on motorways and A roads between September 2016 and August 2017 and found there were about 3,700 jams a day. The M5 in Somerset saw the longest disruption and biggest tailbacks while three of the top five were on the M6. On 4 August 2017, drivers faced up to 15 hours of traffic jams after two lorries collided and there was a fuel spill, which resulted in the carriageway of the M5 needing to be resurfaced. Inrix said it caused problems for drivers up to 36 miles away. It estimated the cost to the economy of this Somerset disruption as nearly £2.4m based on average fuel consumption, the number of people typically in cars and "assumptions" about the purpose of people's trips. At the time travel company First Bus said it faced "unprecedented delays" to services in North Somerset. While the worst traffic jams were caused by accidents and other unexpected problems, some roads often get snarled up. According to another Inrix study, drivers lost 73 hours in 2016 to delays along the A406 Northbound from Chiswick Roundabout to Hanger Lane in Ealing, London.