We use smartphone swipe technology to find a date on Tinder, so can we use it to find the perfect outfit as well?

Tech firm Bijou Commerce believes so. Its platform enables fashion and beauty apps to offer single-image browsing - customers can swipe right if they like a product, and left if they don't.
Working with retail companies like Nobody's Child, Bijou is on a mission to make fashion shopping simpler and more engaging for customers.
"Most retailers' apps and mobile sites put between four and 12 products on a single screen," chief executive Beth Wond tells the BBC.
"These images look small on most mobile phones, meaning individual products struggle to stand out."
She also believes retailers should understand that this Tinder-style swipe technology isn't just a gimmick.
"For fashion brands the biggest asset is your image, so single-image browsing is crucial," she says.
This is just one example of how fashion retailers are responding to the new world of smartphones and social media.
How about "liking" your way to an outfit choice?
Charese Embree co-founded a US-born site and app called Fynd, a fashion search engine that lets shoppers "like" their way to the look they want.
Say you search for "cocktail dresses" and a wide selection comes up, you can home in on the style and colour you're after by clicking the heart icon on the ones you like. An algorithm narrows down the search for you based on your preferences - "speed dating for dresses" as the website describes it.
"The like button works because of our familiarity with it," says Ms Embree. "Our concept is just an extension of your Facebook or Instagram page, but helps you find that perfect outfit you've been looking for."
Fynd works with department stores such as Bloomingdales to give them the ability to showcase their wares.
"We enable retailers to reach social media-savvy consumers much quicker than they can do in store," she says.
Tammy Smulders, managing director of online fashion platform Luxhub, believes smartphones have made us into impatient buyers.
"We are seeing a shift. It's not that people are more demanding, it's just that the norm is to have everything in an instant," she says.
There has also been a shift from fashion bloggers not just talking about clothes on social media but also giving followers a chance to buy the outfits instantly.
Platforms such as Like To Know It link fashion bloggers' Instagram accounts directly with retailers, so you can shop for the outfits and accessories in the posts you "like".
Luxury fashion group Yoox Net-a-Porter went one step further by creating their own social media app called The Net Set.
"The rise of social media and style blogs has shown that people around the world are inspired by each other's style so The Net Set instantly links consumers, designers and brands in real time," says Alex Alexander, Net-a-Porter's chief information officer.
Watchable social content, such as YouTube, hasn't been forgotten either.
Very, the online clothing brand, teamed up with rappers Rizzle Kicks and former girl band member Rochelle Humes to create the world's first "shoppable" music video.
The music video allowed viewers to click on any item they liked, from the clothes to home wear, and buy it immediately, using Google's TrueView "shoppable ad" functionality.
Jodie Butt at Cake PR, who helped create the video, says: "Today's consumers are digital natives, socially hungry and brand savvy.
"Content is a huge part of their everyday life, but they're are spoilt for choice - which means if a brand can't capture their attention quickly they'll lose them in one click."
The content helped Very take Â£1.4m in sales as people switched from viewers to shoppers.
And Tammy Smulders believes this is the way we're heading.
"We are moving into a more interactive, real-time way of purchasing goods," she says. "Whether that's taking a picture and purchasing a designer dress at a fashion show or just a cute top we've seen someone wearing on the bus. It's all going to be at our fingertips."
For example, fashion shopping app Goxip in Hong Kong lets fans point their phones at celebrities and buy what they're wearing.
And the UK's Snap Fashion works much the same way - using image recognition software to match up photos you take with the same or similar clothes online or in a high street store near you.
Augmented reality firm Blippar already enables you to point your cameraphone at something and receive information about it. Now it has teamed up with card payments giant Visa and designer Henry Holland to develop the first "instant buy" fashion show.
But if the fashion industry is being taken over by the smartphone, where does this leave the high street?
Most young shoppers now take their smartphones with them and many use them in-store to research products and compare prices online.
Simon Richards, partnership director at Blippar, says his firm is working with a number of high street stores to take this element of the app further.
"We want to help the high street grow by bridging the gap between the digital and physical worlds and making consumers better informed about the things they see around them."
"By making consumers more knowledgeable about a certain product, such as colour variations, or giving product reviews, it will help the consumer gain more knowledge of the brand or the designer's inspiration behind the collection."
Retailers also gain access to useful data about what their customers are looking at in-store, enabling them to improve stock choices and product placement.
Fashion and phones would appear to be a match made in heaven.
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The government is to invest £143m improving children's mental health services in England this year.

The funding is part of a £1.25bn package of increased spending on children and adolescents' mental health services announced in March's budget.
The money for 2015/16 is short of the £250m Department of Health officials had expected to be spent this year.
A further £30m will be spent helping people with eating disorders this year, the department said.
The details are likely to include a guarantee that by 2020, 95% of patients will be seen within four weeks of being referred, with the most urgent cases seen within a week.
On mental health spending, a department spokeswoman said they had reduced this year's spending to ensure the money was properly invested.
She added they were fully committed to spending the whole £1.25bn over the course of the Parliament.
Children's mental health services in England are under severe strain, with long waiting times for treatment and few hospital beds, forcing some children to travel large distances for treatment.
Sarah Brennan, head of the charity Young Minds, said: "I'm not worried about how much they are spending this year as long as it's spent well, that the money is spent intelligently.
"They should use it to gear up this year, organise themselves and hire the right staff, allowing them to make next year a year of real transformation."
Liberal Democrat MP Norman Lamb, the former care minister, said the shortfall in 2015/16 should be spent next year.
He added: "We also have to ensure that the government don't cut the money they give other areas of mental health funding, such as local authorities, who fund many psychiatric services for young people."
Dr Martin McShane, national clinical director for long-term conditions at NHS England, said: "The number of children and young people with an eating disorder is on the rise and it is right that the government has made this a priority and that we now have a clear waiting time standard.
"It is clinically proven that patients recover most quickly when we treat them as early and as close to home as possible.
"By prioritising our focus on doing this we can minimise the number of young people who end up needing more specialised in-patient care."


More than half of food outlets in Wales achieved the highest hygiene ratings, a year after a law making them display the scores came into force.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) said 56% of firms gained a 5 (very good) rating, up from 45% the year before.
The FSA said the law, the first in the UK, had been a "motivating factor" in raising standards for customers.
Welsh ministers said local councils were "tackling" firms with low ratings who were not displaying their ratings.
Deputy Health Minister Vaughan Gething said the scheme was "a really good example of regulators working together with food businesses in support of a common agenda".


To look at Moses Cushworth you would not know that anything has gone wrong.

Moses is a beautiful baby boy. His eyes stare back at you, open, inquiring. He does not cry, does not complain. Just takes it all in.
We do not know if this was how he behaved during the first four months of his life, and nor do his parents Rich and Mercedes.
This is because Moses Cushworth was swapped at birth in El Salvador, given to the wrong mother and father.
"We are overwhelmed, we're happy, we feel safe," his mother Mercy Cushworth says a day after finally arriving back home in Dallas, Texas, with her son.
"I slept the whole night last night. He slept the whole night - overslept today," she smiles, cradling her baby. He's sleeping again as we speak.
Baby swapped at birth returns home
It is a tale that will frighten every parent. A tale of the birth of a son, and of the joy of holding that son to your breast. A tale in which that child, born prematurely, spends his first night on a specialist ward, away from his mother. And the next day, unknown to them, a different baby boy is brought to his parents.
This is what happened to Mercy and Rich Cushworth. They named the boy brought to them that morning in the hospital Jacob, and for four months back home in Texas they brought him up as their own.
But there was always, says Mercy, the nagging, chilling suspicion that Jacob was not theirs. And she couldn't shake it. The boy did not look like either of them, she remembers.
So she decided to take a DNA test.
"I felt like I was betraying him. That was a feeling I had - I am betraying my son," but she had to do it. And it was not her son.
The result of that test was incontrovertible. Mercy says there was a 0.0% chance, according to the test, that she was the mother of the boy she had raised from day two of his life.
It is now that the tears start to roll down her face.
"The pain. The thought that the baby I had been nursing, taking care of, loving him, bathing him, that he was not mine.
"And then I had another thought that came with it - where's my baby?"
He was back in El Salvador with another family who had also given birth to a boy in the hospital that day.
Within hours, Jacob and Moses were swapped once again - this time handed to their biological parents. But by this stage both mothers and fathers had formed a bond with a child that was not their own. It was heartbreaking.
"My lawyer said 'We have to bring the other baby' and I'm like 'What'? and he said 'We've found the other family, you have to hand him in'.
"We barely had time to say goodbye. I got all his clothes and we took him in the office. And we handed him in. And that was the most difficult part of all the situation.
"Then at the same time got our own baby, and that was so happy. And he was smiling."
That was more than eight months ago. And you would have thought that would have brought to an end this emotional tale. Yet it did not.
To leave El Salvador, Moses Cushworth, now four months old and oblivious to the storm surrounding his birth, needed a passport. And to get a passport, he needed a birth certificate.
That happened only in the past few weeks.
For Rich Cushworth, this has been the most difficult bit of the whole story.
"Taking nine months to get paperwork for this child has perhaps been the most painful part of the entire process," he says. "It's bankrupted us financially. It's been forced separation - it's just been awful."
When Bernhard Garside was appointed Her Majesty's Ambassador to the Republic of El Salvador he probably did not imagine that his brief would involve helping to reunite a baby boy and his parents.
And yet according to the Cushworths he has played a key part. Rich Cushworth has lived in the US for years, but he is still a British citizen. He refers to Ambassador Garside as "an angel".
Our man in El Salvador probably would not recognise the description, but he does acknowledge the difficulties they all faced.
"What took time was unravelling the legality of all the birth certificates - and making sure the right parents were recorded with the right children."
As for what actually happened in the first place, with the swapping of the babies, he says that officials in El Salvador "have concluded their investigations and found there was no criminal element involved in any of this and it was simply a mistake".
But the Cushworths still want answers. They want to know why this happened, to make sure no one else ever has to go through what they have endured.


A housemaster has been found to have abused children decades ago at a Catholic orphanage, run by the "nuns and priests from Hell".

James McCann, 80, who worked at the St Francis Boys' Home, Shefford, Bedfordshire, in the 1960s, was found unfit to plea due to ill health.
But a trial of the facts found 42 of 50 charges of physical and sexual assaults on 25 boys to be proven.
The judge granted McCann an absolute discharge on all of the counts.
For more on this story and other local news
The allegations against McCann, of  Suffield Court, Swaffham, Norfolk, related to an 11-year period between 1963 and 1974.
The jury at the Old Bailey found 30 counts of actual bodily harm to be proven, plus 12 of indecency.
All 25 victims had at least one proven count, the court heard.
Judge Rebecca Poulet QC told jurors that "the only course of action in the circumstances" was an absolute discharge.
Earlier, John Cahill, 74, admitted six indecent assaults against children.
Cahill, of Chandos Court, Bedford, an ex-scoutmaster at the home, was jailed for three-and-a-half years in May for abusing the boys aged between 10 and 15 in the 1960s.
At Cahill's trial, prosecutor Matthew Walsh said the home was run by the "nuns and priests from Hell".
Two priests facing abuse accusations, Fr John Ryan and Fr Wilfred Johnson, died before the police investigation started.
Analysis by Nic Rigby
Since our first news story about St Francis Boys' Homes in May 2013, dozens of ex-residents have spoken about the abuse at the home from the 1950s to 1974.
The victims told me the main thing they wanted was for the public to believe their stories after years of indifference from the authorities.
The old boys, known as a Shefford Scruffs, said their lives felt "ruined" or "haunted" by their experiences.
Now that the trials have brought the abuse to public attention, the police officer who pursued the investigation, Mark Ross, hopes they can "find a sense of closure".


Laura Robson has been forced to retire from her qualifying match against American Madison Brengle at Eastbourne because of a thigh injury.

The former British number one, 22, arrived on court with heavy strapping around her right leg and fell a set and a break behind before pulling out.
Robson is currently ranked 308 in the world after missing much of 2014 and 2015 with a wrist problem.
Her latest injury comes four days after she was awarded a Wimbledon wildcard.
Robson won the junior Wimbledon title in 2008 and reached a career-high of 27 in the world rankings in July 2013 after making it through to the last 16 at the All England Club.
This year's tournament starts on Monday, 27 June.
Meanwhile, Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki advanced to the second round at Eastbourne with a 6-1 6-3 win over France's Alize Cornet.
The 2009 champion won the first set comprehensively and recovered from a break in the second set to clinch a comfortable victory.
The field at Devonshire Park features seven former tournament champions including 2008 winner Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, who is the top seed this year.
Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova and British players Johanna Konta, Heather Watson, Naomi Broady and Tara Moore are also in the field of 48.
Konta, as one of the 16 seeds, has a bye into the second round but Watson, Broady and Moore are all in first-round action on Monday.
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A BFG Dream Jar artwork that was to be auctioned for charity has been vandalised after going on display in Glasgow.

The giant glass jar, placed outside the city's Glasgow's Gallery of Modern Art, was smashed and its contents taken.
Designed by artist Caio Locke, it was entitled Endless Carnival and contained two painted merry-go-round horses.
It was one of 50 created to raise funds for Save the Children and Roald Dahl's Marvellous Children's Charity.
The Glasgow jar, which was more than 4ft tall (1.28m), has now been removed from the trail.
Personalities from across the globe, including Steven Spielberg, Prof Stephen Hawking, Simon Cowell, the Duchess of Cornwall and BFG actor Mark Rylance, were invited to help design a jar for the fundraising drive. The sculptures were then created by a specialist design company.
Most of the dream jars are displayed in London but Glasgow, Birmingham, Cardiff and Cheshire are also taking part.
Artist Caio Locke said his jar evoked the enduring magic of the fairground carousel: "My dream is a carnival that never ends, with magical horses designed to keep the merry-go-round forever turning."
Natasha Parker from Save the Children said: "We are incredibly disappointed to learn that Ciao Locke's The Endless Carnival Dream Jar which was a beautiful and unique piece of art, has been taken from the city centre and will sadly no longer be a part of The BFG Dream Jar Trail.
"It was set to raise thousands for Save the Children via the live online auction at www.paddle8.com/bfg to help vulnerable children around the world get the chance to make their dreams come true."
A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said: "We were approached by the organiser of this project and asked to find a suitable location in the city.
"It's deeply disappointing that an artwork intended to help raise money for vulnerable children has been vandalised.
"If anyone has any information on who is responsible then we urge them to contact the police."


The UK's newest hospital has welcomed its first patients.

The South Glasgow University Hospital is one of the biggest critical care complexes in Europe.
It has been nicknamed the "Death Star" by locals because of its imposing 14-storey star-shaped design, topped by a landing pad for aircraft.
The hospital cost £842m but the medical equipment inside has brought the final total closer to £1bn. The project was funded by the Scottish government.
The hospital features interactive displays for children developed in collaboration with the Glasgow Science Centre, along with a cinema and roof garden in the children's wing.
Patients enter the main hospital through a dramatic atrium which stretches up the entire height of the building.
There are self-service check-in machines, and nearly all of the 1,100 beds have their own room, with an en-suite bathroom and views out over the city.
A fleet of robots deliver linen and other goods via a network of underground tunnels.
The hospital replaces four ageing hospitals across Glasgow, some of which date back to Victorian times.
Dr David Stewart is the medical director for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and the man in charge of moving 1,000 inpatients and 10,000 staff to the new facility.
"This allows us to truly bring healthcare into the 21st Century," he said.
"For most of my career I've been working out of buildings some of which have been more than 100 years old.
"Frankly, although they were fine in their day, they were not suitable for the type of technologically based healthcare which we need to deliver now."
The new hospital has not been without its problems. Staff say there are not enough car parking spaces and there have been claims that there are not enough beds, despite its huge size.
"We're opening more beds on this site than we're closing on the other sites," said Dr Stewart.
"We'll have 3,500 car parking spaces and 60 buses arriving per hour at peak times."
By converging four hospitals into one, health bosses say they will be able to staff the rotas more easily and make sure specialists are on hand night and day.
This is in response to research which suggests people are more likely to die if they're admitted to hospital over the weekend or during a bank holiday.
The first outpatients will be treated at the hospital on Monday.
It will take until June to move all of the staff and patients into their new surroundings.


Four paintings by Renaissance Old Master Caravaggio are the centrepiece of a major exhibition at the National Galleries of Scotland.

The Beyond Caravaggio exhibition features the work of the Italian artist and 30 other artists from all over Europe who were influenced by him.
It is a collaboration with the National Galleries in London and Dublin.
Edinburgh is the last stop for the works inspired by the man known as the "bad boy" of early 17th Century art.
This is the first exhibition of works by Caravaggio and his followers ever to be shown in Scotland.
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was just 39 when he died in 1610.
Four years earlier he had murdered a man after a quarrel over a game of tennis and spent the rest of his life as a fugitive.
Christopher Baker, the acting director of the Scottish National Gallery, told BBC Scotland that Caravaggio was a "revolutionary artist".
He said: "You could see him as the archetypal bad boy artist who in his private life has a tempestuous time, who behaves appallingly, who is often in the courts and who is on the run having committed murder.
"In addition to all of that he is a great creative force.
"He produces these extraordinary pictures, which unsurprisingly, had an extraordinary impact and inspired other painters, who travelled to Rome and Naples from right across Europe and thought 'I need to do that, I want a piece of that as well'.
"That is the story this exhibition tells."
One of the paintings in the exhibition, The Taking of Christ (1602), is from the National Gallery of Ireland, where it is on indefinite loan from the Jesuit Community in Dublin.
It was rediscovered in 1990 in a Jesuits' residence in the Irish capital.
Aidan Weston-Lewis, the curator of exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery, said it was "frustrating" to think that it was offered to the Scottish National Gallery for free in 1921 and turned down.
He said it was the only painting by Caravaggio that has ever been in a Scottish private collection.
It was bought by Scottish country gentleman William Hamilton Nisbet in Rome in 1802, directly from the Mattei family who had commissioned it 200 years earlier.
The painting was on display at Biel House in East Lothian for 120 years.
Mr Weston-Lewis said: "His descendants bequeathed a large group of pictures from that collection to the Scottish National Gallery.
"We didn't have space for them all.
"They were paraded in front of the trustees at the next board meeting and some were selected and some weren't.
"Very sadly from our point of view this painting got away. It was turned down."
Mr Weston-Lewis said the painting had been mistakenly re-attributed to a Caravaggio follower but even so the reputation of the Italian artist was so low at this time that the painting would not have been thought worth saving.
He said: "There was a degree of ignorance. It was only in the middle of the 20th Century that his reputation was resurrected fully.
"Now one could argue he's probably the most popular of all Old Master painters, or certainly up there among them."
Caravaggio's dramatic lighting and compositions, and his radically new approach to subject matter, exerted a huge influence on artists such as Gentileschi, Ribera, Valentin and Ter Brugghen.
Mr Baker said: "It is not just the style of painting but the new types of subject matter, often secular subjects that he excelled at producing, that thrilled other people.
"But also it's gaming, being in pubs, misbehaving, having a good time, this heady world of pleasure comes into painting at this moment through him, and that's what everybody else wants a bit of."
The four paintings by Caravaggio to be shown in the exhibition include The Supper at Emmaus (1601) and Boy bitten by a Lizard (about 1594-5) as well as The Taking of Christ (1602).
Ribera's The Martyrdom of St Bartholomew (1634), which was in the Cranstoun family collection at Corehouse in Lanarkshire for more than 170 years, has been borrowed for this exhibition from the National Gallery of Art in Washington.
Another painting, Christ displaying his Wounds (c.1625-35) by Spadarino, has been borrowed from Perth Museum and Art Gallery.
Beyond Caravaggio is on display at the National Galleries in Scotland from 17 June to 24 September. Entrance to the exhibit costs Â£12.


Celtic will appeal against the red card shown to Dedryck Boyata in the draw at Hamilton Academical despite manager Ronny Deila having criticised the defender.

Media playback is not supported on this device
After Friday's game at New Douglas Park, the Norwegian had said he agreed with referee Craig Thomson's decision.
But Deila has changed his mind after reviewing television footage.
"I have seen it many times and, when you've seen it from all angles, it's the wrong decision," Deila said.
Deila reiterated his opinion that the Belgian defender could have avoided the red card by staying on his feet rather than lunging into the tackle on Hamilton's Carlton Morris.
"I'm still saying that in this situation I want my player staying on his feet, because we have quick defenders and running with people is better than taking chances and putting the referee in a bad situation.
"He makes his decision and hits the ball, in my opinion it's not a red card."
Deila has been criticised for his post-match comments and not defending his player, but he remains adamant that "it's important to be honest" in his assessments.
"I will never say anything about a player personally, but this is a decision on the pitch," Deila said. "I don't see any problem with that.
"I'm honest with the players. This is not an attack [on Dedryk]. Someone who has and will defend his players is me.
"I have no regret with what I did in that matter. But I was wrong because it was in my opinion no penalty."
Celtic remain in contract talks with the Australian midfielder Tom Rogic, with Deila insisting that the player remain in his long-term plans for the club. "We're working to get that renewed," the Celtic manager said.
With Dundee visiting Celtic Park on Wednesday, Deila said that his team would have to be strong defensively to cope with the attackers in Paul Hartley's side. The Celtic manager has yet to name his squad for the game, but he added that there is no arrangement with Manchester City over Patrick Roberts starting first-team matches during his loan spell at the club.
"The agreement is that he comes to us and we try everything we can to develop him as well as possible," Deila said.
"If he's good enough for the team then he plays and if he's not then he's on the bench. You can't make promises, he's a young player and we're happy to have him for one and a half years."
Deila also confirmed that he will speak to Leigh Griffiths about continuing to be the nominated penalty taker after his miss against Hamilton, but he retains the manager's confidence.
"I'm not afraid to give that chance to Leigh, he knows where the goals are standing," Deila said.


Major High Street lenders have been selling complex financial contracts to small business clients without properly explaining the risks involved.
The products were offered to thousands of small firms - including pub owners, haulage firms, care-home operators and vets - when they asked their bank to take out a loan.
The borrowers were told that the product would provide an "insurance" or "hedge" against the risk of interest rates rising.
But with interest rates having instead fallen since 2008 to historic lows, many of these businesses have discovered they are now sitting on tens of thousands of pounds in losses.
What have the banks been doing?
Small businesses claim to have been sold "Interest Rate Swap Agreements" and other complicated interest rate hedging products such as "collars" or "caps and floors" without being properly told the risks they were taking.
Many borrowers claim that they were pressurised into buying these products. They say the "hedge" was made a condition of the loan they needed being granted, and that in some cases they were given very little time to make a decision.
What are the risks of these products?
The hedges were supposed to protect borrowers from the risk of interest rates going up.
But the quid pro quo was that borrowers paid more when interest rates fell. After 2008, the Bank of England slashed interest rates to help out struggling borrowers - but these borrowers did not benefit from cheaper interest rates because of their hedges.
What's more, borrowers have found themselves stuck with these hedges. For example, some businesses have tried to shrink their businesses in response to the tough trading conditions, by selling off properties and using the proceeds to pay off their loans. But when they have asked to cancel the hedges for these loans, they have sometimes been told they must pay tens of thousands of pounds in cancellation costs.
Some products also contained additional risks. For example, the lender - but not the borrower - had the right to cancel the hedge without paying any compensation.
In the case of an electrical retailer who has spoken to BBC business editor Robert Peston, the borrower actually ended up paying a higher interest rate on the hedge as the Bank of England cut lending rates below a trigger level.
Why do some businesses claim these products were inappropriate?
In many cases, borrowers say they have ended up with hedges for loans that do not even exist.
For example, some claim they were told to take out hedges for significantly more than the amount of money they were actually borrowing.
In other cases, borrowers say they were pushed into taking out hedges that would last many more years than their loans, because the bank said they were likely to reborrow the loans when they came up for repayment.
But the bank made no commitment to relend them the money. So the borrower faces the risk of being stuck in an expensive hedge for a loan the bank refuses to renew.
In one case that has been settled out of court, the borrower even claimed that their bank had already agreed to cap their monthly loan repayments - meaning there was no need for an interest rate hedge at all.
How widespread are the allegations?
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said 40,000 of these products were sold by four banks - Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and RBS.
After ordering the banks to set up reviews, the FCA reported that the first compensation offers were accepted at the end of August 2013. In September 2013, it said that a further 2,000 letters offering compensation were being sent out.
Jeremy Roe, who runs a chain of holiday cottages, founded the Bully-banks campaign website after he said he himself fell victim to mis-selling.
He says that hundreds of aggrieved businesses have registered on his website since it was highlighted by the Daily Telegraph, although he has no idea how large the problem could turn out to be.
What can businesses do about it?
The four banks - Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and RBS - are now each setting up a review of the cases of potential mis-selling. The banks are prioritising those in financial difficulty.
Those businesses affected will be contacted by the bank to tell them that they are eligible to be part of these reviews, if they agree to it. They might have to provide some information to the bank.
In due course, the bank will propose "fair and reasonable" redress on a case-by-case basis, which will reviewed and agreed by the independent reviewer.
If the business are not satisfied with this offer then they can refer the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. However, if the business is unhappy, and thinks that it has suffered losses of more than Â£150,000, then it may have to take its case to the civil courts.
Some customers who purchased caps are not included in the scope of the review unless they complain to their bank.
Mr Roe, of Bully-banks, recommends businesses collect as much documentary evidence as possible - legal documents, sales materials provided by the banks, and email records.
He also points out that borrowers have a right to demand that their bank provide them with transcripts of any telephone conversations they have had with bank representatives, which the banks routinely record.
Any business in hardship can apply to have its loan repayments suspended while the reviews are taking place.
Should small businesses avoid these products in future?
Not necessarily.
Interest rates can go up as well as down. Indeed, interest rates cannot go a lot lower - the Bank of England can only cut them a further 0.5% before they hit zero. Rising interest rates can be a real risk for businesses, as they were in the 1970s.
However, financial adviser James Ducker says anyone considering entering into one of these transactions should speak to an expert to get independent advice - so the banks know they cannot charge a huge profit.
"Swaps can be a useful service which to help insulate business customers against fluctuations in interest rates," according to the British Bankers' Association.
"As with every other purchase, customers should consider if this is the right product for them, shop around and be sure they fully understand what they are signing up to before making a commitment."
However, a number of banks have said that they sold these complex products to relatively few businesses.
Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and RBS have also all agreed to stop marketing structured collars to retail clients.


A California man has been arrested on arson charges over a fire that has destroyed more than 175 homes and threatens hundreds more.

Damin Pashilk, 40, faces 17 counts of arson and is suspected of involvement in numerous other fires in Lake County over the past year.
The massive Clayton Fire began on Saturday evening and has been fuelled by fierce winds.
It has wiped out whole blocks in the working-class town of Lower Lake.
It is 5% contained and poses a risk to 1,500 additional structures, said the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire).
Over 1,600 firefighters are battling the blaze that has left dozens of families homeless in the town 130km (80 miles) north of San Francisco.
In Lower Lake, houses have been razed by the flames, with only their brick chimneys still standing. Burned out hulks of vehicles litter the blackened landscape.
News of Mr Pashilk's arrest was greeted with gasps, cheers and applause at a community meeting at a casino being used to house evacuees.
He is from the nearby town of Clear Lake, said reports.
"The residents of Lake County have experienced senseless loss and endured significant hardship over the past year," Cal Fire Chief Ken Pimlott said in a statement.
"Mr Pashilk committed a horrific crime and we will seek prosecution to the fullest extent of the law."
The blaze is one of two dozen major wildfires raging across the US West, which have taken hold amid a five-year drought and high temperatures.


A bird of prey that should be a rare visitor to Scotland appears to have taken up residence in North Uist in the Western Isles.

The gyr falcon has spent four months so far on the island.
According to RSPB Scotland, the raptor has been making its presence felt by picking fights with resident birds of prey including a buzzard.
The falcon, believed to be a female, has also been hunting greylag geese and widgeon, a species of duck.
RSPB warden Stuart Taylor said: "Gyr falcons occur in three colour phases and the ones which arrive on the Western Isles are the whitest and come predominantly from Greenland.
"They are very much an arctic raptor which breeds on the tundra and mountains of the northern hemisphere.
"Most previous birds have spent up to a week or so on the islands, but the individual now residing on North Uist has been here for four months. It is very mobile however, disappearing for a day or two and then reappearing again."


A pioneering and life-extending drug repeatedly deemed too expensive will now be offered on the NHS in England.

It is the result of a confidential deal between the health service and the drug company Roche.
Kadcyla, the undiscounted cost of which had been £90,000 per patient, adds an average of six months of life to women with a form of terminal breast cancer.
Campaigners have praised the "monumental" U-turn, which  will benefit about 1,200 women a year.
"Tough negotiation and flexibility between the NHS and Roche means both patients and taxpayers are getting a good deal," said NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens.
Kadcyla,  a combination of two drugs, is used to treat people with HER2-positive tumours that have spread to other parts of the body and cannot be surgically removed.
Scotland decided in April to pay for the drug, but it had been deemed too expensive by the rest of the UK.
In order for a drug to be approved by the regulatory body, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), it has to pass a cost-effectiveness test.
The full price drug worked out at £166,000 for every "quality adjusted life year" of good health.
It is not clear how much of a discount has been offered, but it is understood the cost per quality adjusted life year is down to about £50,000.
That is in line with other drugs that extend the life of terminally ill patients.
Richard Erwin, general manager at Roche, said: "Close collaboration between Roche, NHS England and NICE has resulted in NICE recommending Kadcyla as a cost-effective treatment.
"This is a positive example of how solutions can be reached when all parties show flexibility."
The Welsh government expects to offer Kadcyla as soon as an equivalent deal is agreed with Roche. And the decision could allow the drug to be prescribed in Northern Ireland too.
Baroness Delyth Morgan, the chief executive at Breast Cancer Now, said: "This is exceptionally good news... we are absolutely delighted."
She added: "Today's landmark decision bodes well for patients looking for reassurances that modern cancer treatments can get through to NHS patients more quickly and can bring transformational improvements in patient outcomes for the future."
A petition by the charity to get Kadcyla funded had amassed more than 115,000 signatures in less than a month.
Gunes Kalkan, from Breast Cancer Care, said: "This U-turn decision is monumental.
"This proves innovative treatments can be made widely available, and it is hugely frustrating this agreement did not come sooner."
Follow James on Twitter.


Offshore oil and gas has previously used the vast scale of its Offshore Europe event in Aberdeen to showcase how big and bold it is.

This week: not so much. The industry is hunkered down, counting the cost of contraction.
There are still riches to be made from exporting, and Aberdeen is doing that well. But in the UK sector, one insider told me that quite a few companies are "simply waiting to be bought". There's nowhere else to go.
Every week brings more redundancies. Last week was Expro. This week, ConocoPhillips put us on stand-by for more bad news on that front, thought most of it in North America.
Financial restructuring is required to stay afloat. Iona Energy and Independent Oil and Gas are two North Sea-focused drillers that have been struggling to keep it together in the short term.
The recent collapse of Fletcher Shipping, leasing offshore supply ships and based in Portlethen, shows what happens when day rates plummet from £18,000 to £3000. (We've yet to hear how much the Scottish government's investment fund lost in that pre-pack administration.)
The annual economic report from industry body Oil and Gas UK notes that expectations of an acquisitions boom haven't been met, yet. Talisman and BG are two big firms being taken over this year, but others seem to be on hold.
Perhaps it is because deals will become more attractive once firms have run out of cash, working capital and other options. The expectations when the oil price appeared to bottom out last January was that the price would be rising by now, as supply constraints kicked in.
But while demand for energy from China has been slowing up, the US shale industry continues to produce, and OPEC has been surpassing its own agreed limits.
Platts, the industry data specialist, has just released its latest take on OPEC production, saying the battle is not to maintain the cartel's control of pricing, but for market share of its 31 million barrels of daily production.
The Saudi-led group has realised that its tactics are not going to kill off US shale, where they can quickly start fracking again as prices rise, and Iran is preparing to come back into the market post-sanctions. So from the Persian Gulf to Venezuela, they're going to have to look to a new strategy.
With that background, it's become harder to see when prices might rise again, and when they do, it doesn't look like being a return to dollar gushers.
Seventy dollars is thought to be the price at which US frackers can move in to the market to boost supply and keep prices from rising further. The price of Brent crude has risen in the last week from below $43 to around $48.
Having hunkered down for several months, North Sea firms are now having to move on to Plan B, for a sustained period of much lower prices.
That's where Oil and Gas UK, along with the new offshore regulator, have been trying to provide a route map from short-term cost-cutting to a big drive on efficiency, to a transformation of the industry. And all within around three years.
The figures about recent developments underline the need for something transformational. Within the Oil and Gas UK report, here are some elements worth noting.
If you like hydrocarbons (and plenty people think they should stay in the ground), the good news is that production is on the rise. Fifteen years after its decline began and after some sharp declines in recent years, UK offshore production is up 3% in the first half of this year.
If Petrofac can finally sort out its miserable project management of Total's Laggan-Tormore field west of Shetland, then the start of gas from that should push 2015 production into the first increase since 2000.
Other plans have drifted. Of 15 new fields due to come on stream this year, a third have already been pushed into 2016.
Big new fields should push the numbers up further - by 4% next year, then 3%, then 6%, to reach 1.7 million barrels per day by 2018. That's still well under half the peak production in 1999, but it shows what you get from investment spend peaking at a colossal £14.8bn last year.
Following through on investment decisions taken before the oil price fell, investment is holding up at around £11bn this year. That is dominated by only four huge projects east and west of Shetland; Mariner, Kraken, Schiehallion and Clair Ridge.
As these move towards production, that investment spend falls sharply - by £2bn to £3bn for the next three years. With a lower oil price, new projects simply aren't being sanctioned.
Even before prices fell, the UK offshore industry had figured out that its costs were spiralling dangerously.
They are trying to get those costs down, through collaboration, sharing the best ideas for efficiency and standardised processes so that more can be shared.
If it has recently cost £17.80 to produce the average barrel, you might think there ought to be a healthy profit. But to that, you have to add £13.60 development costs. Translate that into dollars, and the combined cost is $49.30 - just above the current barrel price.
That simplifies things a bit, so it's worth looking at the spread of costs.
More than 50 fields were producing oil last year at a cost of less than £10 per barrel, so it continues to look profitable.  Around 10 were doing so for at least £40, and a couple for more than £60. Fields cost per barrel tend to rise sharply as they near the end of their working lives.
As old fields dry up, the industry's hope is that they can be replaced. UK drillers would like something like the vast Johann Svardrup field, recently discovered within a developed area just across the sea boundary with Norway.
(The astonishing field announced last week off the coast of Egypt, containing an estimated 30 trillion cubic feet of gas, would be even more welcome.)
But hoping is about all they're doing.  So far this year, only seven exploration wells have been sunk. That's in line with recent years, and the appetite for taking risks in the UK sector are diminished by a dire success rate.
In the three years 2012 to 2014, only 165 million recoverable barrels have been found. Last year's finds amounted to only 60 million barrels.
That may sound a lot if you buy your fuel by the litre and tankful. But at current rates of production, that would last little more than three months of pumping.
At that rate of success with exploration, the estimate of between two and nine billion of yet-to-find UK oil and gas looks like being very optimistic.
So what about going after the reserves they know they've got? The Oil and Gas UK economic report points to analysis suggesting there are nine billion barrels found but not developed, from 300 discoveries.
Most of these were found before 2000, and even with the oil price consistently above $100, they still weren't attractive enough to develop.
So what to do? Cue - yes, you've guessed correctly - the industry's call for more tax incentives.


A spate of family murders in Victoria has pushed the issue of domestic violence to the forefront of the state's election campaign.

But it is not only in Victoria. Across Australia, a spotlight is being shone on the failure of government agencies to protect women and children from violent partners and fathers.
The murder of Melbourne woman Kelly Thompson by her ex-partner in February this year was not unusual. On average, one woman is killed every week across Australia by a current or former partner, according to the Australian Institute of Criminology.
Ms Thompson was stabbed to death in her home by Wayne Wood, who then killed himself.
In the months preceding her death, she had spoken to police about Wood's violent behaviour many times and he had regularly breached a police intervention order that was supposed to prevent him going within 200m of her house.
Her story highlighted how courts and police often fail women and children when they are in most need of protection.
Six months after she was killed, Ms Thompson's parents joined Victoria's leading family violence organisations on the steps of the Victorian parliament to speak out at the launch of the No More Deaths campaign.
Wendy Thompson said the police "miserably failed" her daughter. "And they've failed two people that are now dead and families that are shattered. And it should never have happened," she told ABC TV.
The No More Deaths campaign has called on Victoria's political parties to commit to wide-ranging policies to keep women and children safe ahead of the 29 November election.
All three of Victoria's parties - the Coalition, Labor and The Greens - attended the launch. The Greens have adopted much of the campaign's platform, the Labor Party has promised a royal commission into family violence, and the Coalition government has announced a A$150m ($131m; £81m) action package.
The commitments have not come too soon, says Domestic Violence Victoria chief executive officer Fiona McCormack.
"The rates at which Australian women are being assaulted and terrorised are obscene but particularly the number of women and children being murdered in Victoria," she says.
"Every family that we speak to says the same thing: they want the death of their family member to be the catalyst for a turning point in how we respond to this issue."
A combination of factors made this the right time to launch the campaign in Victoria, says senior policy officer at the Federation of Community Legal Centres, Chris Atmore.
"This year, there has been a lot of media attention on several family violence killings that really touched the public and as a consequence, touched politicians, particularly because two of these killings happened in public," says Dr Atmore.
In April, 33-year-old Fiona Warzywoda was stabbed to death by her partner, Craig McDermott, in a busy suburban shopping centre in Melbourne.
Only hours before, she had attended court in relation to an order preventing McDermott from approaching her.
"That case really touched the community directly, the people in the shopping centre, the shopkeepers … and there was a public vigil organised by her family," says Mr Atmore.
The emergence of Luke Batty's mother as an articulate advocate for the rights of women and children at risk has also changed public attitudes, she says.
In February, 11-year-old Luke was beaten with a cricket bat and then stabbed by his father in front of horrified onlookers at a cricket training session in rural Victoria.
"Rosie Batty has emerged as an extraordinary advocate for change… politicians have been falling over themselves to meet her," says Dr Atmore.
"It's almost like a perfect storm… We have had a sense that our politicians are taking the issue more seriously in recent months because we have been invited to sit at the table."
Legislators and police have been under pressure in other states and public attitudes about the issue are being questioned.
In Queensland, former governor-general Dame Quentin Bryce last month said the gravity and severity of domestic violence in that state was far worse than people realised.  Dame Quentin is chairing a task force reviewing the service and facilities available to victims of family violence.
In Western Australia, the family of murdered indigenous woman Andrea Pickett, a mother of 13 children, are suing the state government and police service in what lawyers are calling a landmark case. They are suing over the authorities' failure to act despite Ms Pickett's numerous reports to police about her estranged husband's violence.
In New South Wales, the Labor Party says it will establish a specialist court for domestic violence and sexual assault cases if it wins next year's state election.
Moo Baulch, acting chief executive officer of community organisation Domestic Violence NSW, welcomed Labor's announcement. However, she said many people still view domestic violence as something that happens behind closed doors.
She is disturbed that some media have portrayed Geoff Hunt, who in September killed his wife and children on their rural property in NSW and then killed himself, as a victim.
There have been suggestions Mr Hunt had snapped because of the burden of looking after his disabled wife.
"In this day and age, it is amazing that we will make this kind of excuse for a murder. As a nation we have got a long way to go," says Ms Baulch.


A six-year-old deaf boy who fled Iraq with his family to escape the Islamic State (IS) group is being threatened with deportation.

Lawand Hamadamin came to the UK after spending a year in a refugee camp in France.
Staff at the Royal School for the Deaf in Derby where Lawand is a pupil were "heartbroken", the head teacher said.
The Home Office would not comment on the deportation, but said the family would receive asylum in Germany.
The boy and his family said they fled northern Iraq after IS threatened to kill disabled children.
They first landed in Greece, but moved on to Germany and eventually to a refugee camp in Dunkirk, France. They then hid in the back of a lorry to get to the UK.
A Home Office spokesman said: "Where there is evidence that an asylum seeker is the responsibility of another European country we will seek to return them there.
"It is only fair that we do not shoulder the burden of asylum claims that should rightly be considered by other countries.
"Asylum seekers should claim in the first safe country they arrive in," a Home Office spokesman said.
Lawand's  school said his mother, father and nine-year-old brother have received notification from the Home Office that they may face deportation in January.
Head teacher Helen Shepherd said: "Lawand's family are understandably devastated that they are being deported, especially since he has made such extraordinary progress in the few months he has been with us.
"When Lawand arrived at the school in September he had no means of communicating with anyone - even his own family.
She added he has now made "exceptional progress".
He is awaiting for a hospital appointment to replace a cochlear implant after his first one broke.
Steve Crump of DeafKidz International, which helped Lawand while he was in France, said: "Disability and deafness is seen as a 'curse' [in Iraq] and it is highly likely that Lawand and his family would be persecuted or at best marginalised."
Mrs Shepherd said: "Being profoundly deaf is enormously challenging for any child, but Lawand has had to overcome so many more challenges in his short life."


An inquest jury has returned a verdict of accidental death after a boy drowned while swimming in a former quarry.

Umar Balogun, 16, from Waltham Forest, London, died at Bawsey Pits, near King's Lynn, Norfolk, in July 2013.
Umar, who was in care at Castle Homes centre, Cambridgeshire, was at the lake with another boy and two care workers.
The staff members had not seen a document which said Umar was a "high risk" for swimming, Norfolk Coroner's Court heard.
Despite a sign saying "No swimming", the boys entered the water and started splashing about before Umar suddenly disappeared under the surface, the coroner's court was told.
A diver later recovered his body on the bottom of the lake.
The coroner's court heard from the two care workers  - Vanda Cawley and Kevin Roweth - who took Umar and another boy to Bawsey on 16 July.
Ms Cawley had been brought in for the day from another home.
Mr Roweth, who had started the job a couple of weeks previously, is currently under investigation by the Health and Safety Executive.
Both staff members said they were not familiar with the boys' risk assessment forms.
The jury returned a verdict of accidental death after a four-day inquest.


The US Federal Reserve's decision to raise interest rates in December was a "close call", according to minutes from the Fed's December meeting.

Fed members voted unanimously to raise its key interest rate by 25 basis points to between 0.25% and 0.5%. a move widely expected.
But some members were cautious, because of global concerns and low inflation.
Economic conditions will likely justify "only gradual increases'' in the future, the minutes showed.
"Participants emphasized the need to adjust the policy path as economic conditions evolved and to avoid appearing to commit to any specific pace of adjustments," according to the details published on Wednesday.
During her statement announcing the increase last month, Fed chairwoman Janet Yellen said she was confident inflation would reach the 2% target and that global factors would not derail the US economy.
Inflation was a key area of concern for several Fed members.
Inflation in the US has remained weaker than expected and the continued fall in oil prices and strengthening of the dollar could derail the Fed's inflation projections.
The members of Fed's board were reasonably confident the jobs market would continue to improve, but that it might not be enough to maintain the economy.
According to the December minuets: "A couple [of members] also worried that a further strengthening of the labour market might not prove sufficient to offset the downward pressures from global disinflationary forces."


At least 14 people have been killed after a bus collided with a fuel tanker on a motorway in western Afghanistan, officials say.

More than 40 others were injured in the accident on Sunday, said Mohammad Naser Mehri, a spokesman for the governor of Farah province.
The bus was travelling from the western province of Herat to the Afghan capital, Kabul.
It is not yet known how the incident occurred.
"Around a dozen of the wounded are in critical condition," Mr Mehri said.
Separately, four people were killed when another bus overturned late on Saturday in the south-western province of Nimroz, Afghan officials said.
Accidents are common in Afghanistan, where roads are often in a poor state and motorists travel at high speeds. Hundreds of motorists die every year.
In May, a collision between two buses and a fuel tanker on a main road in Afghanistan killed 73 people and injured more than 50.


The family of a former junior footballer who was killed in Leith on New Year's Day has paid tribute to the "fantastic and loving dad".

Shaun Woodburn, 30, from Edinburgh, died after a disturbance in Great Junction Street at 02:00 on Sunday.
A 16-year-old male appeared in court on Monday charged with murder. He made no plea and was remanded in custody.
Mohammed Zakariyah, 18, from Edinburgh, also appeared at the petition hearing to face a charge of assault to injury.
Mr Zakariyah made no plea or declaration and was released on bail.
Mr Woodburn's family said: "Shaun was first and foremost a fantastic and loving dad, he was a great and caring son, brother, partner and friend.
"He was a hard working young man loved by all of his colleagues, and had an honours degree in architectural engineering from Heriot Watt University.
"Shaun also had a passion for playing football, latterly with Bonnyrigg Rose, only to give up to spend more time with his family.
"That was Shaun, a selfless, kind and loving young man who has had his life cut short in the most tragic of circumstances.
"We would like to thank everyone for their kind wishes and support at this time."
Det Insp Stuart Alexander, of Police Scotland, said he wanted to speak to anyone who was in the area of Great Junction Street or Mill Lane between 01:30 and 02:00 on New Year's morning.
He added: "I want to know why the disturbance started in Great Junction Street and continued into Mill Lane, near to Gladstones Public House.
"I would appeal to everybody that was present to contact us so that my enquiry team can interview them and assess whether they have any relevant information.
"For the sake of Shaun's family it is important that we find out exactly what happened and why Shaun had his life so tragically taken from him."


Animal cruelty is widespread in the Queensland greyhound racing industry, says an Australian government report.

Its author, Alan MacSporran, QC, said the industry had failed systematically to assess and manage how animals were treated by trainers and racers.
The report follows the release of footage earlier this year of trainers using live animals to bait racing dogs.
Mr MacSporran said the fact trainers had not hidden the "barbaric" treatment of animals "tells its own story".
In April, 55 greyhound carcasses were found dumped in a wildflower reserve on the coast of Queensland .
Police and animal authorities investigated the find as part of a joint taskforce established by the state government following an expose by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) in February into the practice of "live baiting" within the greyhound racing industry across the nation.
The ABC had aired disturbing footage of greyhounds chasing live pigs, possums and rabbits around tracks.
The "bait" animals were tied to mechanical lures before being chased and mauled to death by dogs, in what Mr MacSporran's report said was an "archaic and barbaric practice".
Four Australian states - NSW, Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania - launched inquiries into greyhound racing.
Dozens of trainers have already been suspended across the country, some have been banned from ever participating in greyhound racing again and others have been charged under animal cruelty laws.
Announcing the completion of the report, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said those responsible for the cruelty "will be brought to justice".
She said the discovery of the mass graves was "deeply disturbing" and described live baiting as "absolutely disgusting".
"There will be swift and decisive action in regards to this report," she said at a press conference on Monday.
To be tabled in the Queensland parliament on Monday, the report will describe how small animals such as kittens, rabbits, piglets and possums were used to "blood" greyhounds, while dogs that lost too many races were cruelly treated and killed.
Some had their ears cut; others were bludgeoned to death, according to some submissions to the inquiry.
Mr MacSporran said people who were already before the courts on animal cruelty charges were not included in the report.
"Although there is no definitive evidence it is widespread... it would be naive in the extreme to think it was not widespread," he said of such behaviour.


Almost 75% of older children in England and Wales with diabetes are not getting key health checks, a study suggests.

Data from 27,682 children and young people showed 25.4% of those aged 12 and older had all seven recommended annual checks, such as eye screenings.
Diabetes UK said missed health checks for children were "very worrying".
However, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, which carried out the audit, said the overall picture showed care was improving.
Health officials recommend all children with diabetes should be assessed to ensure they are managing their condition properly.
Guidelines from NICE (the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) state all children with diabetes should be encouraged to have their blood sugar levels checked four times a year in clinic and those over the age of 12 should also have six other health checks.
These include measurement of growth, blood pressure, kidney function and cholesterol, as well as eye screening and a foot examination.
The report looked at data from children and young people with diabetes up to the age of 24 who attended paediatric diabetes units in England and Wales between April 2014 and the end of March 2015.
More than 70% had type 1 diabetes, which requires daily insulin injections.
Experts say the average blood glucose level (HbA1C) - a marker that measures overall diabetes control - in children with diabetes fell for the fifth consecutive year.
The report found that those achieving "excellent diabetes control" - equivalent to a blood glucose level of less than 7.5% - rose from 15.8% in 2012-13 to 23.5% in 2014-15.
It also found 98.7% of all children and young people had received the blood glucose checks.
The audit showed 23% were now reducing their risk of future complications from the disease.
However, the most commonly missed checks among children aged 12 and older included foot examinations, eye screenings and cholesterol testing.
The tests are designed to spot early signs of diabetes causing harm to organs. And experts say some of these complications - which can include blindness and kidney damage - could be less severe if spotted and treated at an early stage.
Dr Justin Warner, consultant in paediatric endocrinology and diabetes at the University Hospital of Wales and clinical lead at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said it was "completely unacceptable" that some of these checks were being missed or not recorded.
He said some service providers might not be writing the information down because of a lack of time and resources.
He said health staff should "strive further" to ensure all checks take place and are recorded, and commissioners should provide adequate resources.
Dr Warner also said children and young people living in the most deprived areas were found to have worse blood glucose test results than those living in more affluent areas.
Amber from Middlewich in Cheshire, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of six. Her mother, Helen Clayton, said it was "petrifying" at first and the right support was crucial.
Amber has regular checks at hospital and access to a 24-hour nurse helpline.
Her mother said: "You are told there is a part of your child's body that isn't working any more and you have to do the job of that part of the body. It is a huge responsibility as if not managed properly it can be life-threatening.
"But with time you learn there is a lot of help and support out there. It would be very difficult without the support network and checks - it gives you confidence."
Bridget Turner, director of policy and care improvement at Diabetes UK, said: "There remains considerable variation in the level of care provided.
"This is very worrying because if children and young people are not supported to manage their diabetes well in early life, they are more likely to be at risk of debilitating and life-threatening complications in adult life such as amputations, blindness and stroke."
Prof Jonathan Valabhji, national clinical director for obesity and diabetes at NHS England, said improvements in glucose control described in the report were outstanding.
He said NHS England was "working closely" with clinical commissioning groups to improve the provision of "effective integrated diabetes services".
A Welsh Government spokesperson said it was "encouraging" to see improvements in paediatric diabetes care in Wales.
"Our newly-established children and young people's diabetes network in Wales is working closely with both the diabetes implementation group and local health boards to continue this and to tackle areas where improvements can be made."
Type 1 diabetes can develop at any age, but usually appears before the age of 40, particularly in childhood.
About 10% of all diabetes is type 1, but it is the most common type of childhood diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes is largely caused by poor lifestyle. About 90% of adults with diabetes have type 2, and it tends to develop later in life than type 1.
Source: NHS Choices


A Royal Marine and an Army medic who died after being injured in Afghanistan have been named by the MoD.

They were Cpl David O'Connor, of 40 Commando, and Cpl Channing Day, of 3 Medical Regiment.
They were fatally injured in a firefight while on patrol with C Company in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand province on Wednesday.
Cpl O'Connor, 27, was from Havant in Hampshire and Cpl Day, 25, was from Comber in County Down.
They were on patrol when they came under fire near the village of Char Kutsa. An Afghan man is also reported to have died in the incident.
The exact circumstances of the deaths are not yet clear.
According to BBC defence correspondent Caroline Wyatt, in Kabul, the Afghan police said an armed off-duty policeman was fired on by a British patrol, but the MoD said UK troops came under small arms fire.
It is possible the gun battle also involved other Afghan police from a nearby checkpoint, our correspondent said.
The MoD said in a statement the British patrol was not working with any Afghan partners at the time.
It added that at this stage it did not know what started the exchange of gunfire and an investigation was ongoing.
Cpl O'Connor was deployed to Afghanistan at the end of September as a section commander in the acting rank of corporal.
A statement released by his family said: "David's family and friends are greatly saddened by his loss and hope to be left to grieve privately."
Lt Col Matt Jackson, commanding officer, said Cpl O'Connor "was one of the best".
Cpl Day was the third British female to have died while serving in Afghanistan since 2001.
She joined the Army in 2005 and was deployed to Afghanistan on 2 October.
Her family said in a statement: "Channing was bubbly, sporty, beautiful and lived her life for the Army. She has died doing what she lived for and in the life that she loved."
Lt Col Phillip de Rouffignac, commanding officer, said she was a "star for the future".
Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said he was "deeply saddened" by the deaths.
He said: "Both have been highly praised by their colleagues for their courage and strong sense of duty. My thoughts are with their families, loved ones and colleagues in the Royal Marines and 3 Medical Regiment."
A total of 435 British military personnel have been killed in Afghanistan since operations started in 2001.
The first British woman to die in action was Cpl Sarah Bryant, 26, from Cumbria, in June 2008. She was one of four soldiers to be killed when her Snatch Land Rover was caught in an explosion in the Lashkar Gah area.
In April last year, Capt Lisa Jade Head, from 11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal Regiment, Royal Logistic Corps died in a UK hospital from injuries suffered in an explosion while clearing roadside bombs in the Nahr-e Saraj area. The 29-year-old was from Huddersfield.


US ride hailing business Lyft has formed a partnership with the Google owner's self-driving car unit Waymo to help develop self-driving vehicles.

Lyft is Uber's biggest rival in the US.
Many firms, including Uber, are racing to develop driverless cars, which they hope can be paired with journey-booking systems to revolutionise transport.
The move is set to escalate rivalry between Waymo and Uber, which are fighting a court battle over self-driving technology.
Waymo says a former employee stole some technology and started a company with it. That company was later bought by Uber, which says it did not steal or use Waymo secrets.
Waymo is one of the leading companies engaged in developing self-driving vehicle technology and has been on the hunt for partners.
Lyft said: "Waymo holds today's best self-driving technology, and collaborating with them will accelerate our shared vision of improving lives with the world's best transportation."
Lyft, which offers a booking platform in 300 US cities, already has a partnership to develop self-driving cars with General Motors. It said this arrangement will not be affected by the new deal with Waymo.
Other companies working on driverless technology include Tesla and Apple, as well as a number of Chinese technology firms and most US, European and Asian carmakers.
Mercedes Benz owner Daimler and automotive parts maker Bosch said this month they will work together to create completely driverless cars in the next few years.


The Mountaineering Council of Scotland has asked people not to rely on smartphones and GPS devices as navigation tools in the hills.

It has urged hillwalkers not already versed in the use of a map and compass to learn the skill.
The council's warning comes ahead of the busy summer walking season.
MCofS said there was a recent incident where a couple had to be rescued from a situation they could have got out of themselves with a map and compass.
Heather Morning, mountain safety adviser for the council, said: "This couple were able to use their GPS to give the emergency services a 10 figure grid reference, which narrows a position down to one square metre - and that's exactly where we found them.
"If only they'd had the ability to relate the grid reference to the map that they had, they would have been able to get off the hill safely on their own.
"They just didn't have the knowledge to properly use the equipment they had, or to navigate without it."
Ms Morning added: "They were lucky that where they got 'lost' they had mobile phone reception, otherwise it might have been a very different story."
The safety adviser said there was also the risk of phones and other devices running out of battery power.


Borussia Dortmund youngster Christian Pulisic says he hopes Gabon international Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang stays at the club "for a long time" because his leadership has made him a crucial player at the German outfit.

Aubameyang, who is contracted with the Bundesliga club until 2020, scored 31 goals in the Bundesliga last season as his side won the German Cup and finished third in the league.
He had been expected to move but has been told he will continue his career in Dortmund, much to Pulisic's delight.
I have learned a lot from him by just being around him in training and picking up small things
"Aubameyang is a leader, a big player for us and we love having him here and would love to have him here for a long time," USA international Pulisic told visiting foreign journalists inside the club's dressing room on Friday.
"Off the field he is just a good guy, always ready to have a laugh. But he knows when he needs to be serious. He is just a really good teammate."
Aubameyang has scored 120 goals and provided 33 assists in 189 appearances for Dortmund who he joined from French side Saint-Étienne in July 2013.
Despite media reports linking Aubameyang to a move away, 18-year-old Pulisic refused to be drawn on speculation over the player's future and insists Aubameyang is hugely valued by his fellow players in the Dortmund dressing room.
"I only focus on myself but he [Aubameyang] has been great with me.
"I have learned a lot from him by just being around him in training and picking up small things. Obviously he is a great player and it is great to have him here.
"He creates the music in the dressing room. He is the DJ, but I want to have that job (of providing the music) but for now he stays in charge."
Last season Aubameyang became only the second African player to win the golden boot in Germany after Ghana's Tony Yeboah achieved the feat twice whilst playing for Eintracht Frankfurt - in the 1992-93 season and the following year in the 1993-94 campaign.
A former France youth international, he switched allegiance to Gabon in 2009 and has represented the Panthers at the 2012, 2015 and 2017 Africa Cup of Nations.
The 2015 African Player of the Year has scored 18 goals in 44 appearances for his country.


England opener Lauren Winfield has rejoined Brisbane Heat for a second spell in the Women's Big Bash League.

She had been on holiday in Australia when the Heat needed an overseas replacement for injured West Indies all-rounder Deandra Dottin.
Winfield, 26, played for Brisbane in the inaugural WBBL in 2015-16, but was not retained for the current campaign.
Dottin suffered a fractured cheekbone after colliding with team-mate Laura Harris while fielding on 27 December.
She will now be replaced by Winfield - who has appeared in two Tests, 25 one-day internationals and 18 Twenty20 internationals - for the rest of the season.
Winfield will be available for Sunday and Monday's double-header against Hobart Hurricanes, who are captained by England skipper Heather Knight.
Brisbane currently lie seventh in the eight-team WBBL, but are just two points off the summit.


Supermarket chain Sainsbury's is to stop running its Brand Match scheme, which gives money back when branded goods are cheaper at rival Asda.

Sainsbury's, which has been running the promotion since 2011, will end it in three weeks' time.
It says it will use the money saved to cut prices on basics.
Increasingly shoppers buy little and often, which means fewer baskets contain the 10 items needed to qualify for Brand Match.
Earlier on Thursday, the Co-op credited the "little and often" method for its growing sales. The Co-op has 2,800 stores, more than double that of Sainsbury's.
This is the second change in promotional strategy from Sainsbury's this year.
Earlier this year, it announced it would stop multi-buy deals, saying customers found these caused "logistical challenges at home in terms of storage and waste".
Sainsbury's is following a trend among its rivals, who are all facing fierce competition from the fast-growing discounters, Aldi and Lidl.
Morrisons last year stopped the price-matching element of its loyalty card scheme and Asda has made changes to its scheme.
Research also shows that a plethora of special offers and promotions leave shoppers confused.


A former scout leader who sexually assaulted a teenage girl has been jailed after the case was referred to the Court of Appeal.

David Oliver, 51, had been given a two-year suspended sentence by Bournemouth Crown Court in May.
He was convicted of six counts of indecent assault in the late 1990s while working at Butchers Coppice Scout Camp in the town.
Oliver, of Coombe Gardens, Bournemouth, was jailed for three years.
The court heard he kissed and touched his victim, who was aged 14-15 at the time, in his car, a scout office and the campsite grounds.
Oliver told the victim she was special and encouraged her to keep their relationship secret.
It was only years later that she felt able to report the crime to police.
Solicitor General Robert Buckland QC MP referred the case to the Court of Appeal under the unduly lenient sentence scheme.
He said: "This is a particularly sad case where the offender abused his position of trust - he had no thought for the lasting impact his actions will have on the victim."


Tesla and its former business partner MobilEye have traded more angry remarks over the safety of the electric vehicle's Autopilot system.

MobilEye executive Amnon Shashua had said the carmaker had "pushed the envelope" on safety in a bid to extend its reach.
Tesla said MobilEye had tried to stop it working on its own system.
Autopilot has been under scrutiny since a fatal crash in May caused by the technology missing a lorry.
The two had worked on the system together but stopped the partnership in July.
"Tesla has been developing its own vision capability in-house for some time with the goal of accelerating performance improvements.
"After learning that Tesla would be deploying this product, MobilEye attempted to force Tesla to discontinue this development, pay them more, and use their products in future hardware," said a Tesla spokeswoman.
"When Tesla refused to cancel its own vision development activities and plans for deployment, MobilEye discontinued hardware support for future platforms and released public statements implying that this discontinuance was motivated by safety concerns."
She also reiterated that the Autopilot feature is not supposed to replace the vehicle's human driver.
"At no time has Tesla ever said or implied that Autopilot makes a car autonomous or 'self-driving' any more than autopilot on a plane, after which it is named, makes a plane self-flying," she said.
MobilEye has now issued a further statement challenging Tesla's latest response.
It said it had "little knowledge" of Tesla's in-house product.
"Tesla's response to the May 7 crash, wherein the company shifted blame to the camera, and later corrected and shifted blame to the radar, indicated to Mobileye that Mobileye's relationship with Tesla could not continue," it said.
It said the two firms had clashed over whether to enable Autopilot to have a "hands-free" function, with an exchange of emails taking place in May 2015.
"After a subsequent face-to-face meeting, Tesla's CEO confirmed that activation of Autopilot would be 'hands-on'.  Despite this confirmation, Autopilot was rolled out in late 2015 with a hands-free activation mode," the statement reads.
Last Sunday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced a series of new safety changes which included Autopilot repeatedly telling drivers to keep their hands on the wheel.
If they refuse, the system will switch off until the car is parked.


US police have arrested a man who allegedly plotted to kidnap one of President Obama's two pet dogs.

Officials say Scott Stockert - who is from the state of North Dakota - was planning to snatch one of the dogs, either Bo or Sunny.
Police in Washington DC found weapons in Mr Stockert's vehicle, including a shotgun, a rifle and a machete.
Agents say he made several outlandish claims during his arrest, including that he intended to run for president.
He also said he was the son of former President John F Kennedy and actress Marilyn Monroe, according to court documents.
Mr Stockert has been charged with violating the District of Columbia's gun laws.
The First Family acquired Bo in 2009, with Sunny, referred to by the family as Bo's "little sister", following in 2013.


The cases against two men charged in relation to a protest against tree-felling in Sheffield have been dropped, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has confirmed.

Simon Crump and Calvin Payne were arrested over a campaign to protect a 100-year-old plane tree.
Mr Payne, 44, and Mr Crump, 56, both from Sheffield, pleaded not guilty to the charges at an earlier hearing.
The CPS said continuing with the case was "not in the public interest".
More stories from Sheffield and South Yorkshire
About 150 supporters staged a protest outside Sheffield Magistrates' Court when the pair appeared there in December.
It followed a protest against plans to cut down a tree in Marden Road, Nether Edge, on 2 November.


Scotland's Transport minister Humza Yousaf said £16m would be "brought forward" to help improve the country's rail system.

23 November 2016 Last updated at 17:04 GMT
In an emergency statement to MSP at Holyrood, the SNP MSP detailed his plan to combat passenger dissatisfaction.
He said: "Passengers want to see action now to strengthen the reliability of the rail infrastructure across the network.
"Sixteen million of investment is being brought forward, over and above what we have planned to already upgrade key junctions, track and signalling equipment."


The Conservatives have defended their record in power at the launch of their general election campaign in Wales.

Welsh Secretary Stephen Crabb said the Tories had delivered rising employment and income tax cuts.
He claimed they were the "true party of Wales", saying Labour "always put Scotland first".
The campaign was launched in Gower, one of the Conservatives' target seats for the election on 7 May.
Since winning eight Welsh seats in the 2010 election, the Conservatives say they have put together a plan for the Welsh economy that includes commitments to electrify railway lines in south Wales and open a prison in Wrexham.
Mr Crabb called on voters to make 2015 the year "Wales lets go of Labour".
He said Labour leader Ed Miliband would need a "piggy back from Alex Salmond" of the SNP to get into Downing Street and accused him of being more at home in leafy parts of north London than the south Wales valleys.
It had taken the coalition government to make progress on projects that had been discussed for years, such as rail electrification, Mr Crabb said.
Labour had treated Wales like a "hereditary fiefdom", he added.
Welsh Tory leader Andrew RT Davies criticised the record of Labour's Welsh government.
"Week in, week out we see what Welsh Labour are doing to communities in Wales in health, education and local government," he said.


Prince Charles and his wife Camilla are to visit Australia and New Zealand in November, his office says.

The trip includes a birthday barbeque in Western Australia for the heir to the British throne, who is turning 67.
The pair will also meet new Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull, once the public face of the country's republican movement.
Their 12-day tour will take in 12 different towns and cities across Australia and New Zealand.
Charles and Camilla arrive in the New Zealand capital Wellington on 4 November.
They will then travel around Australia between 10 and 15 November, visiting Adelaide and Tanunda, Canberra, Sydney, Albany and Perth.
It will be the 15th time the Prince of Wales has visited Australia.
His son Prince William and his wife Kate proved a hit with Australians when they visited last year to show off their baby son.


A pilot has been killed after their US Navy F-18 jet crashed in the Fens in Cambridgeshire.

21 October 2015 Last updated at 14:39 BST
The Hornet plane came down in fields at Redmere, near Ely, close to the Suffolk border, at about 10:30 BST.
Cambridgeshire Police said the pilot, who was the only crew member, has died.
The aircraft had taken off from RAF Lakenheath, but was not based there.


Two people have died after a crash involving three cars in Bradford.

A grey BMW 3 Series, a white Range Rover Sport and a blue Proton private hire car collided on Barkerend Road at the junction of Shipley Airedale Road at about 10:15 GMT.
The male driver of the Proton and a male passenger both died at the scene.
A 26-year-old man and a 22-year-old man have been arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving. Officers have appealed for witnesses.


A man who stole a cathedral's 19th Century Greek icon had "the instincts of the magpie", a judge has said.

Vasilijy Apilats, 61, of Crewe, stole The Raising of Lazarus painting, which is estimated to be worth £2,500, from Chester Cathedral.
His defence claimed he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder following ordeals with gangsters.
Recorder Eric Lamb jailed him for nine months at Chester Crown Court.
Apilats, originally from Lativa, denied theft but was found guilty by a jury in November.
The court had been told the icon was taken from a chapel in the cathedral in August 2014 and Apilats had left a cheap Christmas angel in its place.
The painting was found wrapped in a black bin bag at Mr Apilats' home on Edleston Road during a police raid the following month amid a "vast array" of religious artefacts.
Apilats was identified as the suspect when his DNA was recovered from the picture stand which the icon had been attached to.
Sentencing Apilats, Mr Lamb said the haul "looked like the instincts of a magpie".
Sgt Neil Doleman of Cheshire Constabulary said: "Apilats is a man who appears to be obsessed with religious artefacts.
"He selfishly took an icon, which was not only of significant value but was also of huge importance to Chester Cathedral and the public who used it as an aid to pray."
Peter Moss, representing Apilats, said his client had post-traumatic stress disorder after suffering at the hands of "mafia" type people in Eastern Europe.
Mr Moss said Apilats had a "shopaholic urge".
Chester Crown Court was told the painting was probably made between 1870 and 1880.


A cat's death after being stabbed with a screwdriver has sparked an RSPCA appeal for information in Cambridgeshire.

The 14-month old tabby and white called Pumbaa was found bleeding in a Peterborough alleyway on Saturday.
The stab wound was so deep the vet was unable to operate before Pumbaa died.
A second cat - Mischief - was shot by an air rifle in an area near to where Pumbaa was stabbed, according to the RSPCA.
It is unclear whether the two incidents are linked.
RSPCA inspector Justin Stubbs said: "These were two shocking and completely senseless attacks."
Pumbaa's owner, Kirsty Cracknell, 29, of Croyland Road, said: "I am utterly devastated about Pumbaa - he was such a soppy little mummy's boy. I just keep expecting him to jump through the window.
"What particularly breaks my heart is that I think he must have been on his way home to me, considering where he was found."


A horse has been freed from a transporter after his hind leg was trapped between the rear wheels.

A specialist animal rescue advisor and firefighters released the horse, named Spencer, after his leg broke through the floor of the trailer in Droxford, Hampshire, on Sunday afternoon.
The horse was anesthetised before the trailer wheels were removed.
Hampshire Fire and Rescue said it was "complicated rescue" but Spencer had suffered no lasting damage.


Further cuts to community police in Bedfordshire could hamper the flow of intelligence to security agencies, the police and crime commissioner claims.

Olly Martins has issued a statement in advance of the government spending review later this week.
Bedfordshire had a high concentration of potential extremists, he said.
"Neighbourhood police underpin counter-terrorism strategy because they can pick up local intelligence about radicalisation and plots," he said.
"If this local intelligence is not passed on, national agencies are not going to be able to deal with threats."
The Home Office declined to comment ahead of the spending review.
But, Chancellor George Osborne refused to rule out cuts to the number of frontline police officers in an interview with the BBC's Andrew Marr on Sunday.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, from the UK government's Counter-Terrorism Policing Network, has called on members of the public to provide "information needed to defeat terrorism", Mr Martins said.
Mr Basu described information-gathering at street level as a "lifeline".
"The level of the threat is complex and ranges from lone attackers intent on carrying out crude, simplistic and violent attacks to sophisticated networks," he said.
"There is now an increased desire among these terrorists to spread terror by attacking civilians at their most unguarded moments."
Mr Martins said Bedfordshire had one of the lowest ratio of police officers to population in England and was regarded as a rural force, but its crime statistics reflected a largely urban character.
Further cuts would make intelligence-gathering at neighbourhood level on the scale needed "inadequate".
An online petition he has raised on the government website has already attracted 10,000 signatures, which will secure a written answer from the government.
However, 100,000 signatures are needed to trigger a parliamentary debate, his main objective.
During his interview with Andrew Marr, Mr Osborne said the counter-terrorism budget was being increased and more money would be spent on defence.


A new trophy in memory of a North Yorkshire farmer is to be presented at this year's Great Yorkshire Show.

Michael Spink, 24, died in an accident in New Zealand in January.
The 24-year-old member of Knaresborough Young Farmers has been honoured by the Yorkshire Agricultural Society with an accolade in his name.
The Michael Spink Memorial Perpetual Trophy will be presented at the 159th Great Yorkshire Show on 11 July. The event attracts about 130,000 visitors.
The cup is to be given to the winner of the Ayrshire Heifer Champion exhibit.
Jane Spink, his mother, said: "Mike absolutely loved the Great Yorkshire Show and he would have loved to have had his name on an Ayrshire trophy.
"This is something really positive for us and we are so honoured to have a trophy dedicated to him."
Mr Spink had travelled to work on a diary farm in New Zealand in June 2016.
He died when he was hit by a car while walking along State Highway 27 near Matamata in the country's North Island after his car went into a ditch, according to the New Zealand Herald.
The Great Yorkshire Show will be held between 11 and 13 July on the Great Yorkshire Showground, Harrogate, North Yorkshire.
Show director Charles Mills, said: "It has been incredible to see how the farming community has come together to support Mike's family."


A man who stalked singer Lily Allen for years and broke into her house has been given an indeterminate hospital order.

Alex Gray, from Perth in Tayside, was convicted of burglary and harassment in April at Harrow Crown Court.
Gray, 31, had started pursuing the star in 2008, sending abusive letters before he was banging on her door and spending nights in her back garden.
He was charged last October when the singer was awoken by him bursting into her bedroom in the early hours.
Lily Allen 'victim-shamed' over stalker
Singer's stalker 'needs help, not jail'
The singer was with her children in the room when he broke in to the flat, forcing her to leave the property for good.
In a victim impact statement read in court the singer said she was "left terrified for my and my children's safety".
She said the presence of another person with her at the time was likely to have scared him off.
Sentencing, Judge Martyn Barklem said the stalker had told police he would "cut her with a knife".
The judge said: "This was a terrifying experience for (Lily Allen), and it was extremely fortunate there was an adult male in the property who evicted Mr Gray from it."


A man has died after taking part in this year's RideLondon cycling event.

Married father-of-four Maris Ozols, 67, from west London, suffered a cardiac arrest on Cromwell Road about 13 miles into the event
He received immediate treatment from fellow riders and medical personnel at the scene, organisers said.
The event, which took place on Sunday, saw 28,032 riders complete either a 46 or 100-mile cycle ride through Surrey and London.
On the website set up to raise money for the British Heart Foundation in his name, Mr Ozols' family described him as "a fit and active man, who partook in yoga and swimming several times a week".
They added: "We never saw it coming.  He didn't have a history of heart problems as far as we knew."
Mr Ozols' son Martin added: "Maris lived life to the full. He was a much loved husband, father and grandfather who refused to get old. He died doing what he loved."
A statement released by RideLondon added: "Everyone involved in Prudential Ride London would like to express our sincere condolences to Maris's family and friends".
The exact cause of Mr Ozols' death has yet to be established.


Two people have been killed in overnight clashes between demonstrators and security forces in Gabon's capital Libreville after disputed elections.

The deaths bring the number killed to five following a second day of violence.
Security forces in Gabon have arrested more than 1,000 people since the presidential vote.
Protests began after Wednesday's announcement that President Ali Bongo had narrowly been re-elected.
Africa Live: More on this and other African news stories
You never get a 98% or 99% turnout in an honest election. You just don't.
Voting is compulsory in Gabon, but it is not enforced; even in Australia where it is enforced, where you can vote by post or online and can be fined for not voting, turnout only reaches 90-95%.
The main reason that a full turnout is practically impossible is that electoral registers, even if they are recently compiled, can rarely be 100% up-to-date.
Even if no-one gets sick or has to travel, people still die. And when a register is updated, new voters are keen to add themselves to the list.
No-one, however, has any great enthusiasm for removing the names of those who have died, and over time the number of these non-existent voters increases.
How to spot signs of possible election rigging
The UN, which has expressed "deep concern" over the escalation of violence, joined the US and former colonial power France in calls for restraint and greater transparency about the election results.
"I know who has won and who has lost," Mr Bongo told local media.
"Who has won? 1.8m Gabonese with whom we will progress together. Who has lost? A small group which had the objective of taking power to use Gabon instead of serving it."
Interior Minister Pacome Moubelet Boubeya said on Thursday that 800 people had been arrested in Libreville and 400 in other areas of the country.
Thursday saw a second day of rioting, with police using tear gas to prevent crowds gathering at the national assembly building which was earlier set on fire by protesters.
Meanwhile, President Bongo's rival Jean Ping told the BBC that a presidential guard helicopter had bombed his headquarters and killed two people.
He has gone into hiding and is said to be safe.
The official election result from Saturday's election gave Mr Bongo a second seven-year term with 49.8% of the vote to Mr Ping's 48.2% - a margin of 5,594 votes.
But Mr Ping said the vote was fraudulent.
He cited the result in Mr Bongo's home province of Haut-Ogooue, where turnout was 99.93% and 95% of votes were for the president.
Mr Bongo took office in 2009 after an election marred by violence, succeeding his father Omar Bongo who had come to power in 1967.
Mr Ping had been a close ally of Omar Bongo, serving him in ministerial roles and having two children with his daughter, Pascaline, a former Gabonese foreign minister.


A tax on fast food with hidden sugar is being considered in Liverpool.

Councillor Richard Kemp named and shamed companies which sell fast food as he called for a sugar tax.
He wants the city solicitor to work with the director of public health to draw up a Parliamentary bill regulating sugar in food.
Councillor Kemp said a Soil Association report highlighted meals available in "Pizza Hut, Frankie and Benny's and Nando's" for excess sugar.
The fast food companies have been contacted by the BBC but have not commented.
Councillor Kemp said the city led the way on the smoking ban and could be pioneering on sugar.
His proposal requests the city solicitor works with the director of public health to draw up a Parliamentary Bill "which would give the council powers to regulate the amount of sugar in foods sold in fast food outlets, restaurants and takeaways".
It also asks the director of public health to work with the Clinical Commissioning Group to promote a health awareness campaign within the city to highlight the real dangers to long-term health of excessive salt and sugar in diets.
Mr Kemp said: "If a child has two fizzy drinks and a fluffy ice-cream pudding they will have consumed seven times the daily recommended sugar".
He said the smoking ban in public places began in Liverpool and led to pressure on the government, adding if "we have a city of people that waddle, we will have a city that dies early".
Professor Simon Capewell, from Liverpool University, who founded Action on Sugar, said the campaign needed to target the "affordability, availability and acceptability" of sugar.
McDonald's, although not identified by Councillor Kemp, said it has carried out "extensive work" to evolve its recipes and reduce sugar and salt for "over 30 years" and provides customers with clear nutrition information.


A Devon teenager has described his actions as "instinct" after he saved his dad's life while fishing at sea.

Tyler Gywnne, 14, called the coastguards while pinning down his father, who was "thrashing around" having a seizure in a 16ft (4.9m) boat two miles off Plymouth.
"I just went with my instinct and did the best I could," Tyler said.
Shaun Gwynne, 53, was rushed to hospital by ambulance after being taken ashore by the lifeboat.
The pair had been fishing near Fort Picklecombe, two miles off Plymouth Sound on Saturday, when Mr Gywnne started to feel unwell.
The former lorry driver kicked and damaged the boat's engine, leaving them floating, during the first of two fits he suffered on the boat.
He said his son's actions prevented him from falling overboard.
"I started to deteriorate, lost my vision and then started to convulse. I blacked out and my son took over," he said.
"It's absolutely amazing, he's beyond his years - I can't thank him enough. I owe him my life."
Tyler alerted the Plymouth inshore lifeboat which transported Mr Gywnne to Millbay Docks where an ambulance was waiting.
Tyler, who received an award in 2011 after caring for his father when he had his left leg amputated, said he was able to remain calm.
"I didn't panic really, if you panic it can make things worse," Tyler said.
"I got him into a safe position to make sure he didn't go over the side of the boat because that could have led to more problems.
"Looking back at the situation, it could have been a lot worse, so I'm glad how it went."
Mr Gywnne told the Plymouth Herald that the reason for the seizures was still unknown, but he would be tested over the next few weeks to determine the cause.