Business Secretary Sajid Javid has ordered an investigation into the "abuse" of tipping in restaurants.

This follows reports that some restaurant chains are regularly holding back some or all of the tips meant for their staff.
The investigation will consider whether there should be a cap on the proportion of tips businesses can withhold.
Trade union Unite opposes this, however, saying it would be "impossible to enforce".
Mr Javid has ordered a formal call for evidence which will end in November.
The investigation will look at how tips left by customers are handled after recent reports found that a proportion of tips at some restaurants were being spent on administrative costs.
There is a voluntary code of practice but restaurants can adopt their own systems.
Unite officer Dave Turnbull said the union was pleased that "the government has woken up to this scandal" but an effective solution needed "careful consideration".
"Capping admin fees will simply legitimise the underhand practice of restaurants taking a slice of staff tips and be near enough impossible to enforce," he said.
"Rather than tinkering around the edges, Sajid Javid should be looking to scrap what is effectively a tax by restaurant bosses on money meant for the pockets of hardworking staff."
Mr Javid said the government wanted a "fair deal" on pay for working people and that this included "taking action on tipping abuse".
"I'm concerned about recent reports, suggesting some restaurants pocket tips for themselves. That's just not right," he said.
"I've ordered an immediate investigation to look at the evidence and consider the views of employees, customers and the industry to see how we can deal with the abuse of tipping."
Analysis by BBC business correspondent Joe Lynam
Restaurants have the highest corporate mortality rate.
They pop up and disappear from our high streets with daffodil-like regularity. That's because consumer tastes can change rapidly but also because profit margins are often very low.
Add in high rents and staff costs in Britain's largest cities and restaurants will say they need to maximise every source of income to stay afloat.
But consumers tend to side with waiting staff when it comes to tips. They assume staff will see most, if not all of them - especially if customers have been asked to pay an 'optional' service charge of at least 10% on their bill.
Adding tips to the existing code of practice among restaurants (which is voluntary anyway) may be the solution. But it may be tough to police.
Most waiting staff are either young or foreign - meaning they don't know the law and don't wish to upset their employers.
As part of the investigation information and views from the hospitality industry and other key stakeholders will be sought.
This will help the government decide if ministers need to intervene to strengthen the voluntary code of practice.
Ufi Ibrahim, chief executive of the British Hospitality Association, said the body "would welcome dialogue with the business secretary on the matter of tipping and the industry code of conduct."
Most chains use a "tronc" system, where all the tips are collected together and distributed evenly through the staff, usually with around 70% going to the waiters, and the rest given to kitchen and other workers.
There is no law regarding how a tronc is divided, however.
A spokesperson for Pizza Express said: "To cover the administrative costs of ensuring that the tronc system is managed correctly and fairly, a small administrative fee of 8% is levied. Under no circumstances does Pizza Express generate additional profit through the tronc."
Many high-street chains deduct fees from tips. These include: Ask (8%), Belgo (10%), Bella Italia (10%), CafÃ© Rouge (10%), Prezzo (10%), Strada (10%) and Zizzi (8%).
Recently Giraffe has scrapped its 10% admin fee on tips, joining chains like Restaurant Group, Carluccio's, Garfunkel's and Jamie Oliver's who do not deduct a fee.
Research from 2009 found that one in five restaurants did not pass tips to their staff, yet the vast majority of customers said they wanted waiting staff to receive the money left for them, the government said.


Olympic heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis-Hill will miss the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow because she is pregnant.

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The 27-year-old Briton is expecting her first baby with husband Andy, but still plans to defend her Olympic gold medal at the 2016 Rio Games.
"I am sorry I won't be in Glasgow for the Commonwealth Games," she said.
"But I know it will be an amazing occasion. I will be at home awaiting the arrival of a little Ennis-Hill."
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England's Ennis-Hill won bronze at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne and chose to skip the 2010 Games in Delhi to concentrate on the European Championships the same year, where she won gold.
Her announcement means she will also miss the 2014 European Championships in Zurich.
The 2009 world champion, who got married in May 2013, added: "We are completely overwhelmed, with excitement and a degree of anxiety that I am sure all first-time parents will relate to.
"My plans for 2014 have been completely turned upside down, but having had a couple of weeks to think about things from a career point of view I am 100% set on returning to full-time athletics once our baby is born and go for a second gold medal at the Rio Olympics in 2016. That challenge really excites me.
"But, in the short-term, I will make our baby a priority and enjoy the whole experience as much as possible."
"The Glasgow 2014 team sent on their congratulations but it is difficult to view the news as anything other than a blow for them.
It has been a positive few months for the organisers, with news that 94% of the tickets have already been sold and updates suggesting venues are on track and finances on budget.
"Just who attends, though, is something mostly out of their control, but after the news there will be no Jessica Ennis-Hill, fingers will be crossed in Glasgow that Usain Bolt and Mo Farah make an appearance."
Despite suffering a disappointing 2013 season where she missed the World Championships because of an Achilles tendon problem, London 2012 Olympic champion Ennis-Hill was favourite for gold in Glasgow.
Former Great Britain 400m runner Katherine Merry backed Ennis to defend her Olympic title at the Rio Olympics but British 2010 Commonwealth heptathlon champion Louise Hazel believes there must be some doubt over Sheffield athlete Ennis staying in the multi-discipline event.
Hazel, who has now retired from heptathlon, said: "Is it possible to be an elite sportswoman and have a baby? Yes.
"Is it possible to come back from Olympic gold as a heptathlete and go on to Rio... it throws a huge question over the continuation of a career as a heptathlete and that's just being realistic."
Merry also suggested that 2014 was a good year to have a break from the sport.
"Without being demeaning to other major championships, if there was going to be a year when an athlete of her stature was going to miss, it would be a year when the Commonwealths and Europeans fall," Merry told BBC Radio 5 live.
"In terms of ranking, they don't sit alongside the Worlds and the Olympics, so it will fall very nicely in terms of her getting back and the timescale of going to Rio to defend that London Olympics gold.
"It's a huge [decision], especially for British athletes because they don't have a year off. We have a major championships every year."
Merry, who won bronze at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, added: "The key thing is what fitness you do during pregnancy. Many athletes like [former world marathon champion] Paula Radcliffe were running well into her pregnancy and keeping very fit and I'm sure Jess will do the same and keep herself ticking over to make the return a bit easier."
David Grevemberg, chief executive of Glasgow 2014, said: "I would like to warmly congratulate both Jessica and her husband Andy on the news that they are expecting their first child.
"Glasgow 2014 is proud to have Jessica as an inspiring ambassador for the Games and appreciate her continued support for the world-class festival of sport which Glasgow and Scotland will host this summer."
Team England chef de mission Jan Paterson also congratulated the pair, adding: "Jessica is a wonderful athlete and role model and I'm sure she'll be cheering on the team in Glasgow 2014. "


The leader of the Isle of Man's Anglicans has said a massive drop in worshippers over 20 years, is a wake-up call to his flock.

The Bishop of Sodor and Man Robert Patterson said the 40% fall in Manx Anglicans since 1991 was faster than anywhere else in the Church of England.
He warned paid clergy numbers may be reduced to cut costs.
Bishop Patterson said if people wanted their churches to survive, they could not be complacent.
"We need to see the situation as it is and stop thinking the Church has been here for 1,500 to 1,600 years and will still be here when I am pushing up daisies," said the bishop.


A tobacco pipe which belonged to arctic explorer Dr Edward Wilson has been bought for display in his home town.

Dr Wilson, who often journeyed with Captain Scott, died in 1912 after failing to return to base camp during a trek with Scott to the South Pole.
His pipe, which it is believed he used on the first official British exploration of the Antarctic in 1901, cost in the region of Â£6,000.
It will be displayed at The Wilson museum in Cheltenham in June.
Engraved with Wilson's initials, the pipe was discovered among possessions at Hooton Pagnell Hall in South Yorkshire where his older brother, Bernard, had worked as the estate manager.
David Wilson, the explorer's great-nephew, said he was "very excited" that one of his great-uncle's pipes was going on display.
"It makes it possible for each and every visitor to The Wilson to come away inspired by his accomplishments, rather than remaining untouched, if impressed, by the heroic stories of his derring-do," he added.
Half of the money needed to buy the pipe was arranged by the Friends of the Wilson group and the rest was raised through donations.
The pipe will be added to The Wilson collection in the museum which explores the story of Dr Wilson's role on the first of Captain Scott's expeditions to the Antarctic.
Alex Pushkin, who runs Pushkin Antiques which sold the pipe, said the history of the object was not known when it was acquired as part of a mixed lot at auction.
"This gave us an opportunity to research the item and we were lucky to find out that it indeed belonged to Edward Wilson," he said.


A prison leaver suffered a cardiac arrest after being found killing a woman at a Caerphilly county hostel, an inquest has heard.

Matthew Williams attacked Cerys Yemm, 22, at the Sirhowy Arms Hotel, Argoed, on 6 November 2014.
Williams, 34, died after he was Tasered four times by police who arrested him.
Gwent Coroner's Court in Newport heard on Thursday that Tasers were not thought to have caused his cardiac arrest.
Two consultant cardiologists, in statements, said it was induced by amphetamines Williams used along with stress caused by the attack on Miss Yemm, the struggle with police and undiagnosed relapsed schizophrenia.
Consultant pathologist Dr Stephen Leadbeatter, who carried out his post mortem examination, told the inquest the barbs from the first Taser had struck Williams on his nose and chest.
The jury was told there were 17 "slash type" cuts on his left arm and on his neck caused by a sharp object which could have been self-inflicted.
Dr Leadbeatter said wounds on his hand suggested he could have been holding a sharp object, like a ceramic bowl.
He gave Williams' cause of death as "sudden unexpected death following a struggle against restraint including discharge of a Taser in a man with a history of schizophrenia who had taken amphetamine and cannabis".
The inquest continues.


Napoli returned to the top of Serie A on goal difference from Juventus after coming from behind to defeat Chievo.

Nicola Rigoni's smart finish gave the visitors an early lead before Argentine forward Gonzalo Higuain levelled with his 26th Serie A goal of the season.
Goals by former Tottenham defender Vlad Chiriches and Jose Callejon sealed the points.
Juventus will go three points clear at the top if they win away to Atalanta on Sunday.
Elsewhere in Serie A, Sampdoria moved eight points clear of the relegation zone by defeating bottom club Hellas Verona 3-0.
Verona are nine points from safety with 10 games remaining.


A 12-year-old girl was grabbed by a man as she walked along a footpath in North Lanarkshire.

The incident happened on a footpath at the rear of Inverkip Drive, Dykehead, between 08:45 and 09:00 on Wednesday.
The girl kicked the man and managed to run off. She was uninjured but left badly shaken by the incident.
Police said the man ran off in the direction of Dyfrig Street. He was white, aged between 18 and 23, about 5ft 7in and slim.
He was wearing a black jacket and black trousers - possibly jogging trousers - and a black beanie hat.
Police have been carrying out door-to-door inquiries and reviewing CCTV footage.
Det Insp Kenny Dalrymple said: "It's imperative we locate this man and I am appealing to people in the local community to consider if they heard or saw something.
"At that time of the morning, people may have been getting ready to go out, perhaps to buy newspapers, take children to school or make their way to work, so you may have noticed something unusual or you may have seen the suspect running off.
"If you have any information, please do contact us and pass it on.
"I'm aware that this matter will be of concern to local people and I would like to reassure everyone that additional police officers will be on patrol in the area and anyone with any concerns can speak to these officers."


A suicide blast in a street full of bars and restaurants in the northern Nigerian city of Kano has killed four people, police say.

One of those killed was a girl aged 12, they say.
Witnesses say the explosion was caused by a bomb in a car in the mainly Christian area of Sabon Gari.
The area has previously been targeted by Boko Haram Islamist militants but it is the first attack on Nigeria's second biggest city for several months.
More than 1,000 people have been killed in Boko Haram attacks this year but the government has said it has pushed the militants back into their strongholds in the north-eastern Borno state.
This is where they seized more than 200 girls last month, in a case which shocked the world and prompted foreign powers to send military advisors to assist Nigeria's army tackle the insurgency.
The street in Sabon Gari was full of revellers and street hawkers when a car exploded.
The BBC's Will Ross in Nigeria says that Sunday's blast was so powerful that all that remains of the car is its engine. The blast could be heard from several miles away.
"At about 22:00 [21:00 GMT], we heard an explosion and immediately mobilised to the scene where we discovered a suicide bomber... Five people, including the bomber, were killed," Kano Police Commissioner Adelere Shinaba said.
He said that the victims were "three men and a girl of about 12".
Kano is the largest city in the mainly Muslim north of Nigeria.
The bars and alcohol-sellers in its Sabon Gari area have been targeted on numerous other occasions.
In January 2012, about 150 people died there in a series of co-ordinated attacks by Boko Haram.
The group is fighting to overthrow the Nigeria government and create an Islamic state.
But it has often attacked Muslims, including preachers who disagree with its interpretation of Islam.
The Nigerian authorities are continuing the search for the kidnapped schoolgirls kidnapped.
The abducted schoolgirls, who include Christians and Muslims, were seized on 14 April.
Boko Haram released a video last week showing more than 100 of the girls and offering an exchange for prisoners.
African leaders meeting in Paris at the weekend agreed to wage "war" on Boko Haram, pledging to share intelligence and co-ordinate action against the group.
French President Francois Hollande called Boko Haram a "major threat to West and Central Africa", and said it had links with al-Qaeda's North-African arm and "other terrorist organisations".
The unrest in Nigeria has not just been confined to the north.
Earlier this month a car bomb in the capital Abuja killed at least 19 people and injured 60 more.
The explosion happened close to a bus station where at least 70 people died in a bomb blast on 14 April.


A woman who had a double-lung transplant last Christmas has written an emotional thank-you letter to her donor's family - as Wales marks the anniversary of a major new law.

On 1 December 2015, Wales became the first nation in the UK to introduce "deemed consent" for organ donations.
Under what is known as a soft opt-out, people who are over 18 in Wales are regarded as having consented unless they register otherwise.
A keen supporter of the new system, Kimberly Chard, who has cystic fibrosis, had her new lungs on Christmas Eve.
BBC Radio 5 live has been following her progress since she was on the waiting list for a transplant.
She said she is hoping if her donor's family are able to read her letter, they can feel proud of what she is achieving.
Ms Chard, 32, and from Bargoed in Caerphilly county, has monthly check-ups at Llandough Hospital near Cardiff and regular visits to Harefield Hospital near London, where her surgery took place.
She still takes about 100 tablets a day to counter the effects of her transplant and her cystic fibrosis but is now able to resume work as a fine artist. She is taking part in a charity exhibition in Cardiff to raise funds to expand the All Wales Cystic Fibrosis Centre at Llandough.
Dr Ian Ketchell is the centre's director and Kimberly's consultant.
He told BBC Radio 5 live: "I came here 11 years ago. In the 10 years before that, there had been one transplant. Eight patients died in my first year.
"It's uncommon for us to lose a patient now. The majority of our patients are 'transplanters'. Looking at Kim now, that's why we do it. And that's why it's worth it."
Dr Ketchell is not sure how much the law change in Wales will affect the numbers of transplants over the years but said it had already brought about greater awareness.
And he revealed how his own family experience in the past year had affected him.
"I recently lost a relative. We'd never really talked about transplantation. Most organs could not be used for transplant. I thought, what about corneas?
"We had a letter a few months ago to say there'd been a successful corneal transplant and somebody had re-gained sight. I can tell you now that made me burst into tears - and I deal with life and death on a daily basis.
"That's why people need to talk about it. And this new law will make people talk about it."
Ms Chard still has good days and bad days but is now far more active than she was before the transplant.
"It was the only option for me. I didn't have much time left. Beforehand you're dealing with the fact that if the transplant doesn't come, you're going to leave your family. You don't think about yourself. So you have to be strong, so they'll be strong in case you don't get a transplant.
"Now I feel more pressure because I've been given a new lease of life, a few more years. It's not just my family who are going to lose out if something happens. I suppose I'm a little bit more scared now of the fact that I could lose out as well."
But she is determined to make the most of the chance she has been given.
"Before, I had to watch the world go by. Now I am able to join in."
She is unaware of the identity of her donor but through her transplant co-ordinator has passed on a message of thanks.
"I want to make my donor family proud of me, in a way. I've written a letter to them.
"It's totally up to them if they're ready to read it or not. They can decline it and it will always be there for when they are ready. But I have written to them to let them know how much it meant to me - what they gave."
Kimberly Chard will also be one of those telling their stories in a three-part documentary, The Greatest Gift, starting on 6 December on BBC One Wales at 22:40.


Numbers of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children cared for by councils in England more than doubled in the two years to March, says a report.

Numbers hit 4,210 and are still rising following the closure of the Calais Jungle camp, says the Association of Directors of Children's Services.
Almost 300 arrived in the last two weeks of October alone, says the ADCS.
But a national shortage of foster carers means councils are struggling to care for the children, says the report.
Information from more than 100 local authorities revealed that more than a third of the children were suffering psychological symptoms like post-traumatic stress disorder, flashbacks and depression.
Many have complex health problems and none has any kind of vaccination history.
Costs to local authorities for every 100 unaccompanied children are estimated at Â£6.75m a year, with the Home Office providing Â£3.35m, leaving a shortfall of Â£3.4m, says the report.
And 76% of the councils that responded said they were struggling to find foster placements for the children.
An extra 7,600 foster carers are already needed in England, according to a Fostering Network report from earlier this year, and ADCS president Dave Hill fears the pressure can only worsen.
"This figure is now much greater as we prepare for the arrival of more unaccompanied children and young people in the coming weeks.
"This crisis is driving up the usage of independent fostering agencies out of necessity and this in turn is driving up costs and draining already stretched council budgets," said Mr Hill.
The report says that the market for foster carers is becoming "febrile" as local authorities compete for placements.
"Now more than ever there needs to be a concerted effort from central and local government working together to increase the number of affordable short and long term foster placements," say the authors.
Government plans to bring 3,000 refugees, mostly vulnerable children at risk, from the Middle East and Africa to the UK as well as 20,000 Syrian refugee families could place councils under even more pressure, says the report.
And it is "not possible to forecast the number of children who will continue to arrive through clandestine routes and the 'lorry stop lottery'," it adds.
So far, a small number of "port" authorities have carried a disproportionate burden, say the authors.
Since July, a dispersal scheme has meant other local authorities have begun to take a share of the children.
The ADCS estimates that if each authority took in 0.07% of its child population that would equate to 8,114 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children - but the association says it is not clear when that "ceiling" will be met.
Most of the children come from conflict zones like Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iraq and Syria; 76% are aged 16 and 17 and more than 90% are male, says the report.
David Simmonds, chairman of the Local Government Association's Asylum Migration and Refugee Task Group, said the report "highlights the significant financial commitment that councils make towards the care of these vulnerable children, with Home Office funding often covering only a small part of the overall cost".
It was now "imperative" that councils had a long-term funding arrangement from government, he added.
A government spokeswoman said there was no evidence of a national shortage of foster carers, "but we always want to encourage more people to take on [the] role".
The spokeswoman said many people had come forward following recent media coverage of children caught up in the migration crisis, offering to foster child asylum seekers or refugees.
"The recently announced safeguarding strategy for unaccompanied and asylum-seeking and refugee children will set out plans to increase the number of foster carers, and bolster supported lodging provision.
"We are grateful for the ongoing support of local authorities who care for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and have substantially increased the amount of funding we provide them."


Any student seeking asylum should be able to finish their education here, the National Union of Students (NUS) Wales has said.

The union is supporting a campaign to stop Bangor University student Shiromini Satkunarajah being deported to Sri Lanka.
The 20-year-old has been taken to a detention centre after being refused asylum.
The Home Office said it considers each case carefully.
Miss Satkunarajah, who was born in Sri Lanka but has lived in the UK for eight years, is due to finish her electrical engineering degree this summer.
She was arrested on Tuesday and taken to a detention centre to await deportation on 28 February.
Thousands of people have signed a petition to stop her deportation.
NUS Wales deputy president Carmen Smith told BBC Wales: "We want the home secretary to stop the callous and inhumane deportation of Shiromini.
"She doesn't have any family or friends in Sri Lanka. Wales is her home.
"She has three months left of her degree. It's a brutal thing to do at such a time in her educational experience."
Arfon MP Hywel Williams said the UK government should use "common sense" in dealing with Miss Satkunarajah's case.
"She has three months to go before she graduates in a field where we really do need people and she's an excellent student," he said.
"There is a certain amount of discretion they can operate and I really wish they would."
A Home Office spokeswoman said: "We do not routinely comment on individual cases.
"The UK has a proud history of granting asylum to those who genuinely need it and every case is carefully considered on its individual merits."


Universities in England face funding cuts of £4.2bn in the coming Spending Review, an e-mail leaked to the BBC News website suggests.

Universities UK head Professor Steve Smith wrote to vice-chancellors saying this week's Browne Review set out figures that "confirm our worst fears".
He says they signal a £3.2bn or 79% cut from teaching and £1bn from research in next week's Spending Review.
The government said it could not comment.
This is because the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said it could not speculate about the Chancellor's spending review plans.
Currently universities are given around £11bn in government grants a year - this covers undergraduate and post-graduate teaching, research funding and infrastructure.
The UCU lecturers' union said cuts of the order being discussed would lead to university closures while the National Union of Students warned the government was stripping away the public funding of universities.
In his letter to fellow vice-chancellors, the UUK president suggests the impact of the Spending Review will be more important than Lord Browne's review of fees published this week.
This is "because potential cuts have been getting worse and worse", he says.
He continues: "Browne explicitly says that Hefce (England's university funding body) will have teaching funding of £700m; the current sum is £3.9bn.
"This implies a cut of around £3.2bn in state funding."
This would represent a 79% cut in the teaching grant.
He adds: "Browne's figures confirm our worst fears. Cuts in the order of £1bn for research also appear to be proposed."
A £4.2bn cut in funding would be almost four times that which universities had been expected to make by the previous government.
Professor Smith says the Browne report, which itself called for unlimited tuition fees, was framed by "what is coming on October 20".
And he adds that universities will do all they can to "replace as much of this lost funding as possible". This means raising tuition fees to make up for lost state funding, he says.
But he also warns that this may not be possible before 2012, when the government is expecting to have measures in place to allow for a rise in fees.
He adds: "The biggest worry is simple to state: if Browne fails to get through the Commons, or gets unpicked, or gets accepted but only after major changes are made, we will simply not be able to replace the unprecedented reductions in state funding that are coming in the Spending Review."
Responding to the claim, the general secretary of the UCU, Sally Hunt, said: "It is hard to believe that any government could contemplate making £4.2bn cuts to higher education given that it generates massive economic growth.
"Cuts of this magnitude will leave many cities and towns without a local university and our students paying the highest public fees in the world."
She called for an urgent review of the impact of "these unimaginable cuts".
President of the NUS Aaron Porter said: "The devastating scale of the cuts to publicly funded degrees planned for next week is laid bare by this admission.
"The true agenda of the coalition government this week is to strip away all public support for arts, humanities and social science provision in universities and to pass on the costs directly to students' bank accounts."
He accused vice-chancellors of standing by plans that would lead to many universities closing down.
A spokesman for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills dismissed the figures as speculation
He added: "Lord Browne made recommendations to government this week on a new funding system.  His proposals are for graduates to make a greater contribution to the cost of their education, linked to their ability to pay.
"These recommendations are currently under consideration and are informing our comprehensive spending review negotiations with the Treasury.  Ensuring the university sector is properly funded remains a key objective for the government."
But Shadow Business Secretary John Denham said the coalition was clearly planning unprecedented cuts in higher education.
"It will mean pushing all or most of the cost of the university education onto students.
"For Britain in a global economy it will damage one of the main drivers of growth, jobs and prosperity," he added.


A British-Iranian woman is among three dual nationals who will go on trial in Iran, Tehran's prosecutor has said.

Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi said charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been "referred to the court" along with a US-Iranian and a Canadian-Iranian.
The charges were not specified, but officials have previously accused Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, 37, of leading a "foreign-linked hostile network".
The Foreign Office said it had raised the case "at the highest levels".
The announcement that Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, US-Iranian businessman Siamak Namazi and Canadian-Iranian academic Homa Hoodfar had been charged was reported by the Iranian judiciary's official news website.
Mr Jafari-Dolatabadi did not say whether the three would be tried by a Revolutionary Court - a closed-door tribunal which handles security-related cases.
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, of north London, works for the London-based Thomson Reuters Foundation charity.
She was detained in April before boarding a flight back to the UK with her two-year-old daughter Gabriella.
Her British husband, Richard Ratcliffe, has dismissed the charges.
On Monday, he said a member of Iran's Revolutionary Guards had told her family that she would be released as long as the British government reached "an agreement" with them, the Associated Press reported.
Gabriella has also been forced to remain in Iran in the care of Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe's family, as her passport was seized.
A spokeswoman said the Foreign Office was doing "all we can on this case".
"However, Iran does not recognise dual nationality and therefore does not grant access to dual nationals," she said.
"We have raised this case repeatedly and at the highest levels and will continue to do so at every available opportunity."
US officials have repeatedly called for the release of Mr Namazi, a consultant who was working in the United Arab Emirates for Crescent Petroleum, whose family says he has been detained since October.
Mr Namazi's 80-year-old father Baquer was reportedly himself detained in February, but Iranian officials have not confirmed this.
Ms Hoodfar, 65, a professor of anthropology at Montreal's Concordia University, was initially detained in March but then released. Three months later, she was arrested again and transferred to prison.
Her family says she has been accused of "dabbling in feminism and security matters".
Mr Jafari-Dolatabadi said Nizar Zakka, a Lebanese permanent resident of the US, would also face trial.
The technology expert was arrested in September, when he was visiting Tehran to speak at a conference on the role of women in sustainable development.
Iranian state media said in November that he was accused of having links to the US military and intelligence agencies.


In 1990, Robert Clayton stumbled upon the Lion Farm estate in the West Midlands and set about documenting the lives of those living there.

The estate was built on the site of old mine workings in the 1960s, when the need to construct public housing was central to government policy.
By the time Clayton was on the scene, policy had changed and all but three of the nine tower blocks had been scheduled for demolition, with the residents in the process of being moved.
All photographs Â© Robert Clayton, from the book Estate, from Stay Free Publishing.
Photofilm produced and recorded by Phil Coomes.
Music: Unfinished Sympathy by Massive Attack.
You can see more of Robert Clayton's work on his website.


A pigeon covered from "head to tail" in "greasy pink paint" has been rescued by the RSPCA.

It was spotted by members of staff at a car wash in Lower Hollin Bank Street, Blackburn on Wednesday morning.
It is not yet clear whether the pigeon had "fallen into something" or been deliberately covered in paint, an RSPCA spokesperson said.
"I've never seen anything like it in 15 years of this job," Insp Nina Small added. "Only his eyes were clear."
"He was in a car wash of all places - perhaps he was trying to clean himself off?
"After a wash, his feathers were still stained pink. The amount of paint coming off his body was astonishing.
"If someone has intentionally painted the pigeon's feathers then I'd be very concerned for other birds and animals in the area," she said.
Insp Small added she hoped it would be possible to remove all the paint from the pigeon's feathers and release it back into the wild.
However, if its feathers have been permanently damaged its ability to fly may be affected.
There is also the possibility that, while attempting to clean itself, the pigeon may have ingested potentially toxic paint.


The number of jobs relying on the UK's offshore oil and gas sector has fallen by more than quarter in the past two years, according to an industry report.

In a second year of severe cuts in cost, the industry is thought to be supporting 120,000 fewer jobs than in 2014.
The annual economic report from Oil and Gas UK shows the impact this year is increasingly on the supply chain.
Spending is down by 30% in two years as a result of the oil price fall.
The report also points to a further deterioration in prospects if exploration is not stepped up.
Only six wells have been sunk in UK waters this year in search of new reservoirs of oil and gas.
For every barrel newly found, four are being extracted from existing fields.
The industry body says that is "unsustainable", and is calling for more effort to encourage drilling.
The last year that more oil and gas was found than produced was in 1990.
The report also showed exploration and production firms are cutting the amount of their known oil and gas reserves they believe to be commercially viable, as marginal fields become "stranded".
This year has so far seen little new commitment of capital funds. Whereas £4.3bn of investment capital was committed to new projects last year, that has fallen to only £100m so far this year.
Recent high levels of capital spending have helped turn around the sharp decline in production since the start of this century.
Oil output rose 9% last year, and gas by 1%. In the first half of this year, oil production was up around 6%.
But with the oil price averaging $41 per barrel in the first eight months of this year - just over a third of the level in summer 2014 - capital spending is now falling rapidly.
It has gone from £14.8bn two years ago to an estimated £9bn this year, with further declines forecast.
Total expenditure, including capital and operating costs, has fallen from £26.6bn in 2014 to £21.7bn last year, and this year it is expected to reach £19bn.
But such a drop was seen as necessary. The industry is claiming a striking achievement in cutting the cost of extracting the average barrel of oil, down from $29 to $16 by the end of this year.
International comparisons suggest that is not all due to the slashing of prices by supply companies as they struggle to win orders. It is partly credited to efficiency measures in what had become one of the world's most expensive regions for oil extraction.
The economic report estimates the employment implications of the industry downturn. It says the 27% drop in only two years has not been felt most severely in direct employment within the production sector. It is now estimated at 34,000, down from 42,000 in 2014.
Indirect employment, in the supply chain, has fallen to 151,000, according to the industry report, down from 201,000 two years ago.
The wider calculation of "induced" jobs, supported by industry expenditure, is reckoned to be down from 211,000 to 145,000.
Scotland is the base for four out of five directly-employed jobs - 27,000 roles - but a lower proportion of indirect jobs (41% or 51,000) and of induced jobs (24% and 35,000).
Profits have plummeted.  In 2011, the average rate of return for extraction companies was more than 50%: at the start of this year, it was 0.2%. Tax revenue has turned negative.
Deirdre Michie, chief executive of Oil and Gas UK, said the UK vote in June to leave the European Union was adding complexity "in an already testing business environment".
In the short term, she said there was "the distraction from managing our way through the downturn, a loss of positive influence over ongoing and future policy development in Brussels, and uncertainty, making it difficult for our members to make longer-term investment decisions".
She said: "The lack of new development projects must be urgently addressed if we are to avoid a repeat of the sharp production decline that dominated the early part of this decade.
"Exploration has fallen to record lows. Little new investment has been approved in 2016, and 2017 looks no better."
Ms Michie argued the government could do more to encourage asset sales, bringing more companies into investment in the specialist challenge of handling oil and gas fields as they near closure. That includes clarity on the liabilities for decommissioning costs.
The chief executive said: "The evidence in the report demonstrates what our industry can achieve when the basin's competitiveness is addressed, and the tax regime reformed.
"Now it is time for the UK and Scottish governments to reinforce their efforts to promote the UK [industry], nationally and internationally, as an attractive investment with world-leading capability from front-end exploration to late-life operations."


Jacob Stockdale, Andrew Trimble and Chris Henry come into the Ulster team to face Munster in Saturday's crucial Pro12 interprovincial game in Limerick.

Stockdale replaces the injured Jared Payne at full-back, while Trimble is preferred to Craig Gilroy on the right wing for the trip to Thomond Park.
Henry comes in at openside flanker for a match which is key to Ulster's hopes of making the play-off semi-finals.
A strong Munster line-up sees several Ireland internationals recalled.
Ulster are unbeaten in their last six outings, winning six and drawing one, but lie fifth in the table, level on points with fourth-placed Scarlets.
Payne was ruled out of the derby encounter earlier this week because of an ankle injury sustained in the 24-24 draw with Cardiff Blues last week.
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Fellow Irish international Trimble will make his first start since recovering from a hand injury, having made an appearance in the second half of the draw with the Blues in Belfast.
Henry has overcome a niggle which ruled him out of that game at Kingspan Stadium, and his inclusion sees Sean Reidy move to number eight, with Iain Henderson continuing at blindside.
Stuart McCloskey provides midfield cover from the bench, having regained fitness from the calf injury which has kept him out of action since the win over Edinburgh in early February.
Munster Director of Rugby Rassie Erasmus makes a total of nine changes, with Donnacha Ryan and Tyler Bleyendaal both deemed fit to start after completing their return to play protocols following concussions.
A changed front row sees Dave Kilcoyne, Niall Scannell and John Ryan named, while Ryan links up with Billy Holland in the second row.
There are two changes in the back row with only Jack O'Donoghue retained at number eight as captain Peter O'Mahony and Tommy O'Donnell return to the flanks.
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Keith Earls, Rory Scannell and Simon Zebo are introduced to the back-line with Earls on the left wing, Scannell inside Francis Saili, and Zebo at full-back.
Fly-half Ian Keatley is named in the replacements after undergoing rehabilitation on a knee ligament injury sustained against Cardiff Blues at the start of March,
James Cronin is also included after overcoming a bang to his knee in last weekend's encounter against Glasgow Warriors.
Conor Murray remains absent, having not played since suffering a shoulder injury when in action for Ireland against Wales on 10 March.
Fellow Lions hopeful CJ Stander is still missing after sustaining an ankle problem during the Irish province's Champions Cup quarter-final win over Toulouse.
Munster are challenging for honours on both the European and domestic fronts and boosted their chances of securing a home Pro12 semi-final by seeing off Glasgow 10-7 on Saturday night.
That victory left them seven points clear of third-placed Ospreys in the standings.
Munster:  S Zebo; D Sweetnam, F Saili, R Scannell, K Earls; T Bleyendaal, D Williams; D Kiloyne, N Scannell, J Ryan; D Ryan, B Holland; P O'Mahony (capt), T O'Donnell, J O'Donoghue.
Replacements:  R Marshall, J Cronin, S Archer, D O'Callaghan, J Deysel, A Lloyd, I Keatley, A Conway.
Ulster: J Stockdale; A Trimble (capt), L Marshall, S Olding, C Piutau; P Jackson, R Pienaar; A Warwick, R Best, W Herbst; K Treadwell, A O'Connor; I Henderson, C Henry, S Reidy.
Replacements: R Herring, C Black, R Ah You, R Diack, C Ross, P Marshall, S McCloskey, C Gilroy.


British number one Andy Murray thrashed Croatian teenager Borna Coric in just 58 minutes to reach the third round at the Paris Masters.

Murray, seeded second, won 6-1 6-2 and will next play Belgian David Goffin - a warm-up for this month's likely meeting in the Davis Cup final.
British number two Aljaz Bedene earlier lost 6-3 7-6 (7-3) to American 13th seed John Isner.
Rafael Nadal beat Lukas Rosol 6-2 6-2, with Roger Federer also progressing.
The Swiss world number two cruised past Italian Andreas Seppi 6-1 6-1.
Murray was playing for the first time since losing to Novak Djokovic in Shanghai 19 days ago, and wasted little time in seeing off Coric.
The 18-year-old is the highest-ranked teenager at 46 in the world but could not fashion a single break point as he went down in under an hour.
Murray, 27, broke serve twice in each set as he made amends for a shock defeat by Coric in Dubai earlier this year.
The Scot has a busy schedule over the next few weeks, with the ATP Finals in London getting under way on November 15, followed by Britain's first Davis Cup final for 37 years from November 27.
He will take on Goffin for the second time when they meet at 09:30 GMT on Thursday, with Murray hoping to pick up valuable information he can take from the Paris hard courts to indoor clay in Ghent later this month.
"Any time you spend time on court with opponents you can learn about their game," he said.
"It's good to play against him but I will obviously, before the tie, watch matches of him playing on clay to learn and understand his game better on that surface."
Bedene found the 6ft 10in Isner's serve too tough an obstacle to overcome as another encouraging week came to an end for Britain's number two.
The 26-year-old was born in Slovenia but gained UK citizenship in March, and he could yet feature in the Davis Cup final as he awaits an ITF ruling over his eligibility to represent Great Britain.
Bedene came through two rounds of qualifying in Paris before beating Spain's Marcel Granollers in the main draw, and his ranking is set to reach a new high of 46 next week.


A North Korean soldier has walked across one of the world's most heavily militarised borders to defect to the South, officials say.

The teenager approached a South Korean guard post in north-eastern Hwacheon in the demilitarised zone (DMZ) on Monday, South Korea's defence ministry said.
There was no exchange of fire and the soldier is now being held in custody.
It is extremely rare for defectors to walk across the DMZ. The last time it happened was in 2012.
Most defectors cross over into China, then make their way through South East Asia and then into South Korea.
Of the nearly 28,000 North Koreans who have resettled in the South, most of them left the country through the border with China, and not through the DMZ.
This is because the 250km-(155 mile)-long demilitarized zone is heavily guarded, littered with anti-personnel landmines.
The last time a North Korean soldier defected through the wire fence was in October 2012, when a soldier managed to cross undetected.
This was a huge embarrassment for the South Korean military and steps were taken to strengthen border security.
Recently, there has been increased activity by North Korean soldiers in the DMZ and some believe the North has been trying to make defections more difficult.
The DMZ is fortified with landmines and barbed wire and guarded by tens of thousands of troops on both side.
Hundreds of North Koreans flee poverty and a repressive regime at home each year.
In August last year, two North Koreans swam across the Yellow Sea border to a South Korean island.


Twenty people, including 18 Albanians, have been rescued from a boat that had started taking in water overnight in the English Channel off the Kent coast.

The BBC has been told that some of the passengers, who are believed to be migrants, phoned relatives in Calais to let them know they were in trouble.
The French authorities were then alerted and contacted the UK coastguard, the BBC understands.
Border Force officials are interviewing the 20, which also include two Britons.
The UK coastguard said it was called just before midnight on Saturday to an incident off the coastal village of Dymchurch.
A helicopter from nearby Lydd and two lifeboats with coastguard rescue teams from Dungeness and Folkestone began the search.
About two hours later, at 02:00 BST, a rigid-hulled inflatable boat, known as a rhib, with 20 people on board was found.
The group were handed over to the UK Border Force and taken to Dover.
An immigration spokesman for the Home Office said they were currently being interviewed by Border Force officers.
A Coastguard statement said: "A call was received at 11.40pm yesterday requesting assistance to the RHIB, which was taking on water.
"The RHIB... was located at 2am and the incident handed over to UK Border Force."
The incident comes after 17 men, thought to be Albanian migrants, were detained after a catamaran arrived at Chichester Marina in West Sussex on Tuesday, along with a 55-year-old British man wanted on suspicion of murder in Spain.
The Briton, who was the subject of a European Arrest Warrant, was detained on suspicion of facilitating illegal immigration and the 17 men were held on suspicion of entering the UK illegally.
Also last month, two Iranian men were found floating in a dinghy in the English Channel.


A new photograph has captured the significant scarring left on the side of a dolphin that was badly sunburned while stranded on mudflats a year ago.

The bottlenose dolphin known as Spirtle was out of the water for 24 hours last May in the Cromarty Firth.
She was spotted by chance by a couple who had got lost trying to drive to a dolphin-watching spot at the Moray Firth.
Rescuers refloated the dolphin but did think she would survive.
Whale and Dolphin Conservation field officer Charlie Phillips photographed Spirtle in the Moray Firth on Friday.
The University of Aberdeen and the Inverness-based Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme (SMASS) are monitoring the dolphin's survival from her injury.
At the time the female dolphin was stranded, SMASS said the blistering on her right side looked "horrific".
However, the scheme's scientists said that because of the make-up of dolphins' skin it had survived a burn that might have proved fatal in other animals,
Also, crucially, the wound was not infected.
Scientists and conservationists hope Spirtle might eventually breed and raise young.


Children should not start formal school lessons until the age of six or seven, a group of educationalists has said.

In a letter to the Daily Telegraph, they said early schooling was causing "profound damage" to children.
They are calling for more emphasis in the curriculum on learning through play.
England's Education Minister Elizabeth Truss said starting school later would damage attempts to close the achievement gap between rich and poor.
The signatories to the letter, including academics, teachers and some writers and charities, said the current system focused too much on formal education, such as the "three Rs", at too early an age.
They said national policies should be reassessed to make them more similar to education systems in Scandinavia.
In Northern Ireland, the statutory age of entry to school is four.
In England, Scotland, Wales, Cyprus and Malta, the age is five.
The statutory age is six in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Republic of Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania,  Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and Turkey.
The age is seven in Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Serbia and Sweden
(Figures from the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER))
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The letter said children who entered school at six or seven "consistently achieve better educational results as well as higher levels of well-being".
It was signed by 127 experts including Lord Layard, director of the Well-Being Programme at the London School of Economics; senior lecturer in psychology of education at Cambridge University Dr David Whitebread, and director of Play England Catherine Prisk.
Another of the signatories, former Children's Commissioner for England Sir Al Aynsley-Green, said: "If you look at a country like Finland children don't start formal, full-scale education until they are seven.
"These extra few years, in my view, provide a crucial opportunity, when supported by well-trained, well-paid and highly educated staff, for children to be children."
The letter was sent by the campaign group, Save Childhood Movement, which has launched a campaign called Too Much, Too Soon.
Group founding director Wendy Ellyatt said: "Despite the fact that 90% of countries in the world prioritise social and emotional learning and start formal schooling at six or seven, in England we seem grimly determined to cling on to the erroneous belief that starting sooner means better results later.
"There is nothing wrong with seeking high educational standards and accountability, but there is surely something very wrong indeed if this comes at the cost of natural development."
Currently most children in England go to nursery at the age of three or four before starting school in the September following their fourth birthday and spend a year in reception class.
Legally all children in England have to be in full-time education by the term after their fifth birthday.
Education Minister Elizabeth Truss rejected calls for formal schooling to start later in England, saying this would damage the life chances of children from poorer homes.
"I think the campaign is wrong-headed," she told The World at One on BBC Radio Four.
"At the moment we've got one of the biggest gaps between the performance of low-income and high-income students. And if schooling were to be delayed, that would mean that it was even later that we started working on closing that gap. And I think that's a massive problem."
Earlier, a source close to Education Secretary Michael Gove had told the Telegraph the authors of the letter were "misguided".
"These people represent the powerful and badly misguided lobby who are responsible for the devaluation of exams and the culture of low expectations in state schools," he said.
By Angela Harrison Education correspondent, BBC News
The age at which children should start formal schooling has been hotly debated for many years.
This campaign and letter to the Telegraph has added potency because it comes as the government in England consults on whether to bring in a new assessment of children as soon as they start in reception classes.
At the moment, teachers check children's abilities across a range of areas in their reception year, but under the proposed changes this check would be carried out earlier and used as a benchmark.
It was floated as an idea by the head of Ofsted, Sir Michael Wilshaw, who said there was a need for a more reliable assessment of children when they started school so that their progress could be better measured as they moved up and left schools.
At the same time, there are calls for more flexibility over the school starting age in Northern Ireland, where pupils start at four.
Supporters of a move towards a later start, point to the differences around the world and in particular to Sweden and Finland, where the legal age for starting school is seven.
Children in those countries typically enter formal schooling later than those in the UK, but they have usually been in a nursery or kindergarten where they have been learning through play and games.
Earlier this week, Northern Ireland Education Minister John O'Dowd indicated he was willing to introduce new rules to allow flexibility on the school starting age.
Researchers said Northern Ireland had the lowest statutory school entry age in Europe, at four.
In England, the government is consulting on whether to bring in what it calls a "simple baseline check" at the start of reception, from which children's progress could be measured for league table and Ofsted inspection purposes.
It would also show parents what progress their children made in the early years of primary school, it says.
At the moment, children are assessed by their reception class teachers at some point in the year but the results are not used formally in accountability measures such as league tables.
The progress children make at primary school is currently measured formally from the results of national (Sats) tests in English and maths taken by children at the age of six or seven and their teachers' assessment of their abilities.
Government officials say a move to an earlier "baseline check" is just one option they are consulting on.
Five- and six-year-olds also have a phonics check on their reading abilities at the end of Year 1.


Life-threatening surgery, broken bones and a lifetime of obstacles have not stopped Paralympic champion David Smith scrapping, splashing and sliding his way to the top.

The Scot had already forged a successful karate career, spending six years on the international stage, and then came close to a 2006 Winter Olympic berth in bobsleigh, before winning rowing gold at the London 2012 Paralympics.
But now Smith wants to represent Great Britain in a fourth different sport - and hit the road at Rio 2016 as a cyclist.
Born with a club foot, he had to learn to walk in special plaster casts, before undergoing emergency spinal surgery in 2010, meaning he had to learn to walk all over again before going on to win gold at his home Paralympics.
Life is all about hurdles - it is how we get over them which defines who we are
Now he is preparing for his first serious bike race at the International Para-cycling Cup, a three-day event which starts in Newport, Wales, on Friday.
"I hope that it's the start of my journey to Rio," Smith told BBC Radio Berkshire.
"To be in Rio in a different sport would be special, so with that in mind my first race is at the velodrome in Wales as a guest rider in the 1km and 4km pursuit."
The 35-year-old, who teamed up with Pamela Relph, Naomi Riches, James Roe and cox Lily van den Broecke to win mixed coxed four gold, retired from rowing after London 2012 because of deteriorating health.
But Smith, born in Dunfermline and now living in Aviemore, is used to overcoming adversity in pursuit of sporting glory, having been born with both feet facing backwards, and had bones repeatedly broken and reset to correct the problem as a child.
Still, he grew up to "fall in love" with karate.
After deciding that six years of "beat ups" was enough, Smith gave athletics a try - and he even turned out to have pace to burn.
But there are some side effects of having a foot that was nearly amputated at birth.
"I set off in athletics and took to the 400m, but due to my feet I couldn't run around the bends and ended up shattering and having stress fractures all through my right foot and up my right leg and into my hips," he said.
After being born with a club foot, Smith spent the first three years of his life having his bones broken and reset to correct his foot alignment. By the age of 15, he was competing internationally as a British karate junior. Then, by 2002, he was the brakeman in a British World Cup bobsleigh team.
When injury ended his bobsleigh career, he turned to rowing and was soon competing internationally as part of an 'adaptive' mixed coxed four crew.
Along with the sports that Smith competed for Great Britain, he also won a shinty junior Scottish title, competed in Austria, France and New Zealand in skiing and claimed a East of Scotland 400m athletics title.
"I wasn't massively slow, I was running about 49 seconds in my first year in the sport so I just thought it was just another dream gone.
"It was then that it hit me - I had the bug and really wanted to be an Olympian. I was never going to let it go and it turned into a bit of an obsession."
By chance, he one day turned on the television and saw bobsleighing. There were no bends, he fancied himself running in a straight line on ice and went for it.
He was brakeman for the British four-man bob that fell one hundredth of a second short of making it to the Winter Olympics in Turin.
Then a mystery neck injury, a constant pain thought to have been brought on by overtraining, ultimately forced him to give up bobsledding.
He calls the realisation that his foot classified him for the Paralympics a "sliding door" moment in his life and chose then to take up rowing.
And it is not just because that particular sporting adventure started with World Championship victory in 2009 and finished on the top step of the podium at Eton Dorney.
Rather, it was team physiotherapist Patrick Dunleavy's discovery in 2010 that there was something not quite right when manipulating his spine.
Doctors investigated, discovering that that mystery neck injury was in fact a tumour the size of a tennis ball embedded in his upper spine, behind his throat.
"All I thought about was that I needed to be in London. I never made a team with it [the tumour] in me. But with it taken out there was nothing to stop me from getting to London," Smith said.
"There are complications with surgery sometimes and I suffered a blood clot inside the spinal chord. Once they sent me home to Ascot I woke up one morning and was paralysed from the neck down. I was rushed back into hospital for another surgery."
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After his second operation he had to learn to walk again, not that Smith would let something like that stop him from achieving his Paralympic dreams.
"I just remember lying there thinking 'I'm still going to be in London and going to win gold'. I didn't mean it in an arrogant way. I just wanted it so, so much and would do anything to get to the start line."
Scar tissue from that life-threatening spinal surgery - with surgeons opting to go through the front of his neck and around his windpipe and vocal chords to access the spine - eventually led to his retirement from rowing and now poses new problems.
He even has plans to cycle around the world, but after being invited to trial with the GB cycling team he admits his appetite for competition is far from satisfied.
"My one love is pulling on that GB top and competing - it's that one moment when you are competing and your heart rate is over 170 and you are giving it everything," he said.
"I don't really know what the future holds, I have to go in for more scans to see what is happening with the scar tissue because if that continues to grows to the same size as the tumour it will cause the same problems.
"Life is all about hurdles - it is how we get over them which defines who we are."
Interview by BBC Radio Berkshire's Adrian Williams.


A sheep trapped on a ledge on the side of a cliff has been rescued.

20 January 2016 Last updated at 12:03 GMT
It had been stuck on the side of the mountain in Snowdonia, Wales, for days and couldn't move from its dangerous position on the ledge.
A rescue team from the RSPCA had to lower themselves down the mountain using ropes to reach the sheep, who was then lowered down with them, to the bottom of the cliff.
They said that the sheep wasn't injured but was very hungry after its cliff-side adventure.
Pictures and video courtesy of RSPCA Cymru.


It's hard to know what to believe on April Fool's Day as there are are many stories that seem rather strange but are in fact genuine.

Here is a round-up of some of this year's more suspicious stories that are apparently true.
1. Today is international pillow fight day.Yes, really. Cities taking part include Hong Kong, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Chicago, Bangalore and Hull. Rules include no hitting anyone without a pillow.
More details (Hull Daily Mail)
2. Former Baywatch star Pamela Anderson "loves" Julian Assange. It might seem an unlikely relationship but "it's no secret", according to the actress. Writing a blog post, she said Mr Assange is trying to "free the world by educating it". She goes on: "It is a romantic struggle, I love him for this".
More details (Daily Star)
3. Putting Shakespeare lyrics to rap music can help pupils revise. Studytracks are songs with lyrics recorded to help pupils to remember what they have learnt in class. Students download an app which features tracks covering the Year 10 and 11 syllabus.
More details (Times)
4. A cat's life was saved with a vodka shot. Vets had to give seven-year-old cat Princess a "vodka drip" to save her from being poisoned by brake fluid. Princess needed 24-hour intensive care and was treated with vodka which worked as an antidote to the poison.
More details (Daily Mirror)
5. Cricketer Gary Ballance may have to miss a championship match because he is colour blind. He could be forced to miss Yorkshire's pink-ball County Championship fixture against Surrey as he could struggle to see the ball and differentiate it from the grass. "If I can't see it, I can't see it. There's nothing I can do," he said.
More details (Times)
6. A teenager has had a "leaving party" for his leg. Thomas Green has had 20 unsuccessful operations to treat a venous malformation - a network of veins behind his left knee that have bled into his joints. He is now having his leg removed. His parents threw his leg a "goodbye" party, complete with a cake in the shape of a leg.
More details (Daily Mirror)
7. An 82-year-old grandma rocks it as a professional DJ in Japan. After 50 years running a restaurant, Sumiko Iwamuro discovered her talent at a birthday party for her son. Her musical tastes include rock, techno jazz and French chansons. Ms Iwamuro, who goes by the name of DJ Sumirock, plays at a club in the Kabukicho district of Tokyo.
More details (Times)
8. China bans long beards. New measures which include prohibiting "abnormally" long beards have been introduced in the far western region of Xinjiang in what the Chinese government describes as a campaign against Islamist extremism.
More details (BBC China)
9. A woman who ate chicken nuggets and chips every day for 24 years has been cured of food phobia after an hour of hypnotherapy. Louise Newton, 28, would gag if she tried anything other than her diet of dry cereal, plain bread, crisps, chocolate and her everyday dinner of battered chicken and chips.
More details (Sun)
10. For a five star hotel stay with a difference, thrill seekers in the Netherlands can now spend the night in a crane. The Crane Hotel Faralda offers three suites - which are up to 50m above the ground - and a hot tub on the top deck.
More details (Daily Express)
Compiled by Cherry Wilson and Laura Lea


Wrexham captain Connor Jennings has been named the National League's player of the month for February.

Forward Jennings, 24, scored two goals during Wrexham's six match unbeaten run in February which saw Gary Mills' side move into the play-off places.
Cheltenham Town boss Gary Johnson is the National League's manager of the month for February.
Leaders Cheltenham secured four wins and a draw in February and are currently on a 22 match unbeaten run.


The army in the Democratic Republic of Congo has suspended 12 senior officers in connection with an incident of mass rape in November, the UN has said.

The UN had issued an ultimatum saying that it would stop working with the two brigades involved in the allegations unless legal action was taken.
It says it has evidence of at least 126 rapes carried out in Minova by soldiers fleeing a rebel offensive.
Soldiers told the BBC that superior officers had ordered them to rape.
Armed groups in eastern DR Congo often use rape as a weapon of war.
The region's mineral riches have been plundered by numerous groups and countries over the past two decades.
On Thursday, the G8 group of nations announced what it called a historic pledge to work towards stamping out rape as a weapon of war, promising to provide $35m (Â£22.7m) to tackle the issue.
Minova, a market town to the south of Goma, was the briefly captured by M23 rebels at the end of last year.
The UN, which has 19,000 peacekeepers in DR Congo, identified a number of perpetrators from within the retreating Congolese army and demanded that they be prosecuted.
A spokesman for the UN peacekeepers said that following March's ultimatum investigations had now been launched, including interviews with victims and the interrogations of suspects.
"The commanding officers and deputy commanding officers of two units, as well as the commanding officers of eight other units, have been suspended and put at the disposal of the military prosecutor," the Reuters news agency quotes the spokesman, Kieran Dwyer, as saying.
"It is a signal of the commitment of the Congolese authorities, but we need them to follow through and hold accountable those who carried out these terrible crimes," Mr Dwyer told the AFP news agency.
In a BBC investigation broadcast on Thursday, soldiers, who all requested anonymity, admitted that they had raped women in Minova.
"We'd lost all hope. We weren't thinking like human beings," one of the soldiers told the BBC Newsnight team.
"It's true that we raped here... You see her, you take her away and have your way with her. Sometimes you kill her, when you finish raping her then you'll kill the child. You rape and carry on," another soldier said.
A staff sergeant said the order to rape came from above: "The commander gave us an order and he was the one who started to do it."
Some 800,000 people have fled the most recent unrest which started a year ago after the M23 fighters mutinied from the army.
They mainly come from the Tutsi minority group and say the government did not lived up to its promises in a 2009 deal, which saw rebel fighters incorporated into the army.
Last month, the UN Security Council approved plans to send a 2,500-strong brigade to eastern DR Congo to "neutralise and disarm" rebel groups.


In our series of letters from African writers, veteran Ghanaian journalist Elizabeth Ohene reflects on her lack of passion for "man's best friend".

I note that a Nigerian court recently cleared a man who had been charged with conduct likely to cause a breach of the peace for naming his dog after President Muhammadu Buhari.
The man said he did it out of love: "I named my beloved pet dog, Buhari, who is my hero... My admiration for Buhari started far back when he was a military head of state."
Regardless of my love or otherwise for a head of state I am unlikely to ever face the kind of problem that led to this man's entanglement with the law.
I do not own a dog, have never owned one, have never been tempted to own one, and will never own a dog. Dogs just do not feature in my world.
My story, or to be accurate, my non-story about dogs has to do with the place I call my hometown, Abutia, which is a little village in the Volta Region of Ghana.
I lived with my grandmother in Abutia, between the ages of five and nine, and I never saw a dog.
I suspect that the first time was after I left Abutia as dogs are not allowed in the village, neither at that time or now.
And it was only when I left Abutia that it dawned on me that dogs can play a major role in people's lives.
I went to San Francisco and was taken to a pet cemetery which was far, far more beautiful than any cemetery I had seen for human beings.
I met someone laying a bunch of beautiful flowers on the grave of his dog which had died five years previously. I decided I would let people have their dogs and I will keep out of their way.
Then I went to live in the United Kingdom and I discovered dogs occupied an elevated place in the lives of the natives there.
I saw dogs being cuddled and being kissed, I saw dogs licking the faces and mouths of their owners. I saw dogs lying on sofas and beds and I saw dogs being groomed in very fancy and expensive salons.
I noted that every news report about famine and unrest anywhere contained a line about a hungry dog.
I noted the frequency with which Queen Elizabeth's corgis got mentioned.
I came close to changing my position on dogs when I got mesmerised by the guide dog of visually-impaired cabinet minister David Blunkett.
I decided I should make an effort to learn the ways of my hosts and learn about dogs.
I went to the greyhound races in Oxford with friends. It was a great outing but it did nothing for me in raising the status of dogs in my estimation.
In 1987, I became very excited when the dog belonging to someone with a Ghanaian sounding name - Chris Amoo - won the top prize at Britain's premier canine show, Crufts, with his Afghan hound.
The next year I surreptitiously went to the Crufts show and saw dogs at their most exotic.
I tried, but I am afraid after living in the UK for 19 years I stuck firmly to my Abutia upbringing: No dogs.
Elizabeth Ohene:
Dogs just do not feature in my world.
I should state that my position and the attitude in Abutia is not universal in Ghana.
Increasingly, we have ferocious guard dogs. And there are some people here who do have pet dogs; we once had a first lady who attested to having dogs that she named Candy and Sweetie Pie.
Indeed, there are parts of Ghana where dogs are a delicacy. I make no comments about that.
But in the place where I come from, no-one has to think about a name for a dog as they do not exist there. So there is no danger I will be caught naming a dog after friend or foe.
More from Elizabeth Ohene:
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A Greek journalist has been acquitted of breaching privacy for publishing the names of 2,000 suspected tax evaders.

Costas Vaxevanis published a list of Greeks with Swiss bank accounts, including a government minister and other prominent figures in public life.
Lawyers for Mr Vaxevanis, 46, argued that the charges were outrageous and said no-one on the list had actually complained of a breach of privacy.
After a one-day trial, a court in Athens found Mr Vaxevanis innocent.
He published the list in Hot Doc, the weekly magazine that he edits.
The BBC's Mark Lowen in Athens says the swift ruling will be an embarrassment to the Greek government.
Greece is being urged by international lenders to crack down on tax evasion as part of far-reaching reforms demanded in exchange for billions of euros of bailout money.
The list of suspected evaders was reportedly leaked by an employee at the HSBC bank and passed to IMF chief Christine Lagarde when she was French finance minister in 2010.
Ms Lagarde apparently handed the list to the Greek authorities, but they took no action.
Two of Greece's former finance ministers have acknowledged seeing copies of the list.
However, Yannis Stournaras, who took office in June, has told parliament he has not seen it.
Mr Vaxevanis said he had published the list because it was his job as a journalist to reveal the truth.
"The three last governments have lied and have made a mockery of the Greek people with this list," he said.
"They were obliged to pass it to parliament or to the justice system. They didn't do it, and they should be in prison for it."
Prosecutors had accused him of publicly ridiculing people and delivering them "to a society that is thirsty for blood".
"The solution to the problems that the country is facing is not cannibalism," the prosecutor said.
But the court took little time in acquitting the journalist, and observers in the courtroom broke out in applause, according to the AFP news agency.


Five physics discoveries with the potential to transform the world have been selected by a leading science magazine for its 25th birthday issue.

Quantum computing and science that could enable shoes to charge a mobile phone are among the list compiled by Physics World.
A potential new tumour treatment called hadron therapy and the "wonder-material" graphene also feature.
The magazine also picked its top five breakthroughs of the last 25 years.
In all, the publication compiled five lists of five to examine different aspects of physics.
Graphene has been one of the most talked-about discoveries in the last decade.
Its strength, flexibility and conductivity make it a potentially ideal material for bendable smartphones and superior prosthetic limbs.
But graphene has another, less-heralded property which could help it transform the everyday lives of people around the world.
Despite being just one atom thick, it is impervious to almost all liquids and gases.
Generating holes in sheets of graphene could therefore create a selective membrane - "the ultimate water purifier" - which might someday create drinking water from the sea.
"Predicting the future is a mug's game. Of course, we expect to get a few of them wrong," Hamish Johnston, editor of physicsworld.com told BBC News.
"Grandiose, utopian predictions that never materialise always look faintly ridiculous in years to come - have you seen anyone recently flying to work on a nuclear-powered jet-pack?"
Physics World is the monthly magazine of the Institute of Physics and was first published in October 1988.
Selecting the five most important breakthroughs of its lifetime was "harder than choosing Nobel laureates", according to reporter Tushna Commissariat.
"There have been so many eye-popping findings that our final choice is, inevitably, open to debate," she wrote.
"Yet for us, these five discoveries stand out above all others as having done the most to transform our understanding of the world."
They are, in chronological order:
The magazine's 25th anniversary issue also highlights five images that have allowed us to "see" a physical phenomenon or effect.
They range from the microscopic - electrons on a copper crystal - to the enormous - the Cat's Eye Nebula, as photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope.
The list of five "biggest unanswered questions" features some eternal riddles - "is life on Earth unique?" Another is: "what exactly is time?"
The final top five is a set of "fiendish physics-themed puzzles" devised by the British signals intelligence agency GCHQ.
The first has already appeared online - a jumbled set of letters on a page which need to be deciphered before arriving at a physics-themed answer.
A similar puzzle was recently used by GCHQ to attract potential employees.
It will be followed by another four problems, one per week throughout October, which will become progressively more challenging.
"We think the puzzles are going to really stretch even the brightest minds," says Matin Durrani, editor of Physics World.
"You won't need any physics to solve them, but they are certainly going to make you think and they're a fun way to celebrate our 25th anniversary.
"I also hope our top fives in the birthday issue will remind everyone just how vital, enjoyable and interesting physics can be."


UK ministers must make clear what Brexit deal they want "pretty soon" to ensure a "reasonably united front" with devolved nations for the negotiations, First Minister Carwyn Jones has warned.

He said the UK government would not want criticism from Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland before the talks.
Mr Jones is on a three-day visit to Norway to learn about its EU links.
In December, Prime Minister Theresa May pledged to set out her Brexit proposals in a  speech in the new year.
She has said the UK will begin the formal Brexit negotiation process by the end of March.
On Wednesday, Mr Jones told BBC Radio Wales: "We want to be in a position where we have agreed a line with the whole of the UK, before they [the UK government] go into negotiations.
"The last thing they will want is for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to be publicly critical of them as they enter those negotiations.
"Now that's not what I want to do, let's get that clear, that's not my starting point, but they will want to avoid that."
UK ministers would want a "reasonably united front in order to go into those negotiations with what I would want to see, which is our support", Mr Jones said.
"So far we don't know what their position is, we have no idea what they're thinking, and that needs to be made clear pretty soon, for everybody's sake," he added.
Before setting off for Oslo, Mr Jones repeated his call for Wales to maintain "full and unfettered access" to the European single market.
Although not an EU member, Norway pays for full access to the European single market, accepts most EU laws and allows EU citizens to live and work there.
Norway is exempt from EU rules on agriculture, fisheries, justice and home affairs but has no say over how the rules of the single market are created.
He said "the Norwegian model is not ideal" but the trip gave him opportunity "to look at what's best for Wales and Britain".
In November, the first minister told AMs that maintaining access to Europe's single market without extra costs was a more important issue than immigration.
On Wednesday, Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies accused Mr Jones of seeking to "have his cake and eat it" by demanding full single market access while accepting the need for immigration controls.


A man has denied being part of a plan to rob a drug dealer who was stabbed to death during a raid on his home.

Darren Twigger, 40, from Canley near Coventry, told Exeter Crown Court he had had "no intention of getting involved in a robbery or assault" and the plan had only been to buy drugs.
Mr Twigger is one of five people accused of attacking 43-year-old Stephen Crook at his home in Exeter in November 2013.
The men deny murder and robbery.
Mr Twigger said his only role had been to drive a group of friends to Devon to buy drugs in bulk to sell on for a profit in the Midlands.
He said he was temporarily unemployed and had agreed to drive the men in the hope of being paid for the favour.
The defendant said: "There was no mention of any robbery or burglary. I never had any intention of getting involved in any robbery or assault."
The court heard he was caught on CCTV buying knives shortly before the raid on Mr Crook's home in Alphington Road, but Mr Twigger claimed he did so at the request of the others because they wanted them for their protection.
The four men on trial alongside him are Bradley Richardson, 18, of Prior Deram Walk, Canley, Ryan Singleton, 26, of Howcotte Green, Canley; Anthony Martin, 22, of Gerard Avenue, Canley and Steven Webster, 40, of East Street, Okehampton, Devon.
Mr Twigger, of John Rous Avenue, is the fourth defendant to give evidence. Previously, Mr Richardson told the court he never went into Mr Crook's flat and Mr Singleton and Mr Martin both blamed others for the violence.
The defendants deny the charges and the trial continues.


A British man who attracted global support after "fat-shaming" images of him were posted online has attended a party in his honour in Los Angeles.

Liverpudlian Sean O'Brien, who now lives in London, was trolled in March after being spotted dancing at a gig.
He was dubbed "The Dancing Man" by a social media campaign to uncover his identity and offer support.
During his LA trip he has been feted by stars, appeared on TV shows and thrown the first pitch at an LA Dodgers game.
Campaigner Monica Lewinsky, musicians Andrew WK and Moby attended his party, while Pharrell Williams recorded a special video message of support that was played at the party.
Mr O'Brien's story has become popular in the US after the social media campaign brought his story to the public's attention.
Pictures of him dancing and then looking upset after he was mocked were posted online, first on message board 4chan and then to the website Reddit.
They were posted with the caption: "Spotted this specimen trying to dance the other week. He stopped when he saw us laughing."
This led to a mass outpouring of support from Twitter users, who managed to track him down.
A group of American supporters, including American writer Cassandra Fairbanks, arranged for him to fly to California for this weekend's events.
His party, which was attended by about 1,000 people, raised money for anti-bullying charities.
Mr O'Brien has also appeared on US television dancing with pop star Meghan Trainor on the Today show.
He told its viewers his experiences after becoming famous had been "completely surreal".
He added: "It's something I never thought would ever happen in my life. It's amazing. What happened to me appeared to touch a lot of nerves.
"We've raised some good money for charity, we've got more money coming in. We're just really trying to help people know that there's support there.
"There'll always be bad in the world but there's far more good people."
He also said that he liked to dance often, "but badly - very, very badly".
Moby acted as the DJ at the party , held at the Avalon nightclub, where Mr O'Brien also met Ms Lewinsky, an anti-bullying campaigner famous for her affair with the former US President Bill Clinton.
On Sunday, Mr O'Brien threw the symbolic first pitch at a baseball game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres, wearing a Dodgers shirt with "Dancing Man" printed on the back.


A Nigerian traditional chief in the state of Lagos has been suspended after he confessed to faking his own kidnap.

Lagos state Governor Akinwunmi Ambode said the incident was "an embarrassment to the state".
He said in a statement that investigations had found that Chief Yusuf Ogundare had conspired with his family to frame a rival chief for the disappearance.
Kidnappings for ransom are common in southern Nigeria.
The governor ordered the chief to stop performing his chieftain duties immediately - to "stop parading [yourself] as Baale of Shangisha with immediate effect".
Chief Ogundare was reported to have been kidnapped on 5 July and released by his captors six days later.
His brother, Mohammed Adams, who was paraded alongside him after their arrest, had reported Chief Ogundare missing and alleged that they had both been kidnapped by people who wanted to sell land to the chief.
Eye-witnesses told police that they had seen the chief "frolicking" around the south-western cities of Ibadan and Ilorin.
According to the governor's statement, the chief's alleged captors dropped him off in the Alausa area on 11 July in a "suspicious manner", alerting police who were on patrol in the area to investigate the matter.
Kidnappings have been on the rise in Nigeria.
The BBC's Didi Akinyelure in Lagos notes that police recently celebrated the arrest of a kidnapping kingpin but in another high-profile case, a group of children abducted more than six weeks ago have yet to be released.


A slip road leading on to the westbound section of the M4 approaching the Severn Bridge has been closed after a lorry overturned and shed its load.

The accident happened at the junction with the M49, near Redwick, Gloucestershire - junction 22 - after 09:30 BST on Thursday.
As a result, the M49 northbound was also shut.
Recovery works are expected to continue into the evening.


Domestic abusers will no longer be able to cross-examine their former partners in family courts in England and Wales, the justice secretary is to announce.

Liz Truss will extend a ban which already exists in criminal courts.
She ordered an emergency review into the practice last month following a campaign by victim support groups.
It is part of the Prisons and Courts Bill which will also see major changes to the prison system, including steps to tackle mobile phone and drug use.
Justice Minister Sir Oliver Heald said: "Victims and the most vulnerable are at the centre of our changes, which will help deliver swifter and more certain justice for all."
Ms Truss has been under pressure to reform the treatment of domestic abuse victims in family courts after the President of the Family Division of the High Court, Sir James Munby said they were lagging "woefully" behind their criminal counterparts.
Family court judges are supposed to follow guidance, known as practice direction 12J, which is aimed at stopping an abusive partner from directly interrogating their ex.
But charity Women's Aid has said that professionals in family courts often have an "appalling" lack of understanding of domestic abuse cases.
Over a period of 24 months, Diana, not her real name, was cross-examined in the family courts several times by her abuser.
"I can barely put into words the terror I felt when my ex-husband questioned me directly in the family court," she said.
"At the end of each 'interrogation' I'd hide in the toilets and shake and sob, dousing myself in soap, water and perfume, trying desperately to wash away the experience.
"My ex taunted me about his violent past, name-calling and abusing me all over again. It happened on several occasions over many months. Each time was like being tortured.
"The officials whose protection I had sought watched impassively. Forcing me to re-live the horror of his violence seemed exciting and gratifying for him. He smirked and openly laughed, relishing his audience, the control and my fear.
"The experience re-traumatised me and prevented me from moving on with my life. I think it cemented the impact of the original violence and now it shocks me to think that this happened."
Case study provided by Refuge.
In other reforms planned for the court system, the bill will give powers to extend the use of virtual hearings, allowing victims to give evidence without meeting their attacker face to face.
Some bail and other hearings will also be conducted via video or phone in future, and booths will be put in court buildings so the public can view the proceedings.
Judges will be able to decide civil claims of up to Â£25,000 entirely online, if the parties agree.
There will also be a new system for those charged with less serious offences, such as not having a ticket on the train, to plead guilty, accept a penalty and pay it online.
Compensation payouts for whiplash will also be capped at fixed tariffs.
Measures to be announced on prisons come at a time of rising violence in jails, suicides and a number of high-profile disturbances.
The bill will set out in law for the first time that the key function of prisons is to reform offenders as well as punish them.
Other proposed measures include:
Ms Truss said: "I want our prisons to be places of discipline, hard work and self-improvement, where staff are empowered to get people off drugs, improve their English and maths get a job on release."
But shadow justice secretary Richard Burgon said: "The Conservatives' Prison and Courts Bill simply fails to deal with a prisons crisis that has developed on their watch.
"Prisons must reform offenders, but these proposals are an inadequate response to a serious situation."


Plans for up to 400 new homes close to a National Trust property have been overturned after a residents' campaign group challenged the decision.

A High Court judge ruled that a government planning inspector got it wrong by opening the way for housing near Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire.
Mrs Justice Lang said the inspector had "made an error of law".
The Kedleston Voice campaign group has vowed to continue fighting any future appeal or planning application.
Catesby Estates Limited, the developer behind the planning application, said it was considering taking further legal advice following the decision.
Peter Steer from Kedleston Voice said: "It is the triumph of the small man or the man in the street over the big developer with loads of money and time on his hands to push forward his concepts of development."
He said Kedleston Voice will have to challenge any appeal made by the Secretary of State or a subsequent planning inquiry should the developer still continue with its application.
The court heard Historic England, the National Trust and the Gardens Trust had all objected to the development.
The developer had applied to build the homes on agricultural land off Kedleston Road and Memorial Road, which is 1.7 miles from the hall.
The application was rejected by Amber Valley Borough Council in July 2015, despite a need for housing in the area.
Catesby Estates then appealed, and government planning inspector John Gray granted outline consent in August 2016 following a public inquiry.
He said the development would not be visible from the hall and therefore did not form part of its setting.
However, Mrs Justice Lang said the inspector had failed to focus on the "historic, social and economic connections" between the hall and the development site.


FA board member Heather Rabbatts hopes the reaction to Sunderland manager David Moyes' comments to a female reporter sends a "loud and clear" message to the football community.

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Moyes told the BBC's Vicki Sparks she might "get a slap" following an interview after a draw with Burnley.
He "deeply regrets" the remark but the Football Association has asked him for his observations on the incident.
Rabbatts is the only woman on the organisation's 12-person board.
"While these are difficult moments for the individuals involved, what I hope this says to the rest of the broader community is that this is not a PC issue," she told BBC Radio 5 live's Sportsweek on Sunday.
"This is about professional people - be they male or female but, particularly given there are so few women holding these professional roles, how they are treated - and I hope that message has gone out loud and clear to the rest of the football community."
In the interview in question on 18 March, Moyes was asked by Sparks if the presence of owner Ellis Short had put extra pressure on him.
He said "no" but, after the interview, added Sparks "might get a slap even though you're a woman" and told her to be "careful" next time she visited.
Both Moyes and Sparks were laughing during the exchange and the former Everton and Manchester United manager later apologised to the reporter, who did not make a complaint.
Moyes, whose team are bottom of the Premier League table, said it was "in the heat of the moment" and, while Sunderland have given their support to him, the club described the comments as "wholly inappropriate".
"Somehow there is a view that football is an exception because of the passion in the game, moments of heat and temper," Rabbatts said.
"There are many other sports that have very passionate moments but we don't find we experience those comments.
"There isn't a moment when somehow the heat releases you from those broader responsibilities in terms of behaving ethically."
She added: "He has apologised. There is a recognition that what has happened wasn't appropriate. Whether it is subject to any regulatory oversight is a different question.
"I suspect the issue of his tenure for his role will be more linked to results on the pitch."
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A solicitor has been awarded £8,000 after she won a sex discrimination case against her employer, the Equality Commission.

Elizabeth Kennedy was not allowed to return to her permanent job after she took a five-year career break.
The tribunal found the commission had indirectly broken sex discrimination laws, albeit unintentionally.
It said the commission's actions were "grossly unfair" and the injury to Ms Kennedy's feelings  "significant".
She was awarded £7,500 plus £637 in interest, as compensation.
The tribunal found that the commission was responsible for "unlawful, indirect sex discrimination".
Ms Kennedy, who is from Hillsborough, County Down, worked as a legal officer with the commission.
She began her career break in January 2009 and renewed this four times up to the maximum five years, under the commission's career break policy.
She told her employer in September 2013 that she intended to return to work the following January. However, she was not told until December 2013 that she could not return.
She also found out that her position had been filled on a permanent basis by a man, just two or three months after her career break had begun.
The tribunal said the commission had known since at least 2009 that people on career breaks would not be permitted to return.
In its judgement, it said it seemed "extraordinary, as a matter of basic fairness, that this was not made plain to the claimant" on 23 September 2013 when she confirmed her intention to return to work.
It was only in December that she was told it was "unlikely" that a vacancy could be identified or funded to enable her return.
In its decision, the tribunal  said that both the commission and the public service union Nipsa had "left an important issue unclear".
The tribunal said it was "clear that the policy was written on the basis that a 'career break' meant what it said on the tin, ie : a break with a departure and a return".
"It was not written on the basis that the acceptance of a career break was in fact a resignation, with no more than a limited form of preferential reinstatement if a suitable vacancy were ever to arise at some indeterminate point in the future," the tribunal said.
It said the Equality Commission's actions were unfair. However, it also said the actions were unintentional and that Ms Kennedy had not argued that any indirect discrimination was intentional.
Awarding the sum of money, the tribunal recommended that the Equality Commission review the operation and wording of its career break policy.
In a statement, the Equality Commission said it was disappointed that the tribunal found aspects of its career break policy to be indirectly discriminatory.
"The career break policy was agreed with the employees' trade union in 2001," the commission added.
"It was a policy aimed at providing greater flexibility for employees.
"Since then a considerable number of employees have benefitted from the policy. The changing financial position and staffing reductions over the past five years resulted in difficulties for the commission in facilitating a return to work for staff at the end of the career breaks."


A black bear cub has been filmed wandering the aisles of a shop in the US state of Oregon.

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23 October 2014 Last updated at 08:26 BST
It took staff and police several attempts to try and scoop the bear up into a shopping basket to get him out of the store.
He's now been taken to a wildlife centre and will be released back into the wild next year.


Human rights defender Nabeel Rajab has been sentenced to two years in prison in Bahrain for "broadcasting fake news".

A court ruled that he had undermined the "prestige" of the kingdom, the state news agency reports.
Rights groups have condemned the decision as an assault on free speech.
Nabeel Rajab, who is president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, also risks further jail time for political tweets.
The sentence is related to interviews he did with television journalists in 2015.
"Imprisoning Nabeel Rajab simply for sharing his opinion is a flagrant violation of human rights, and an alarming sign that the Bahraini authorities will go to any length to silence criticism," said Salil Shetty, Amnesty International's secretary general.
According to the Bahrain News Agency, the head of the prosecution said the charges were "not related to human rights activities and did not affect the right to free opinion and expression".
Nabeel Rajab, 52, has spent the last year in pre-trial detention.
He was sentenced in absentia, having been in hospital since April after complications following back surgery.
Free speech organisation Index On Censorship, which awarded him a Freedom of Expression Award in 2012, said he had been kept "largely in solitary confinement".
He has been in and out of jail since he helped lead a pro-democracy uprising in 2011.
In June 2016, he was arrested and jailed over his tweets about alleged torture in Bahrain's prison system and the Saudi coalition's war in Yemen.
Charges include "spreading false rumours in time of war", "insulting public authorities" (the interior ministry) and "insulting a foreign country".
Although a court ordered his release in December, he was rearrested almost immediately.
He has also faced other "fake news" accusations since writing an opinion piece in the New York Times about Bahraini political prisoners last December.
The hearing for the Twitter case has been postponed multiple times and the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy says he faces 15 years if convicted.
The next court date is 7 August.