The sale of the UK government's stake in the Eurostar train service is "further evidence" of assets being undervalued, according to MPs.

The government eventually sold its 40% stake in early 2015 for almost double the estimate by financial advisers.
That was good news for the taxpayer, but it underlined a "repeated tendency" to undervalue assets, the Public Accounts Committee said in a report.
The PAC also criticised delays in publishing data on the HS1 rail line.
MPs said it was "unacceptable" that there was a two-year delay by the Department for Transport in publishing an evaluation of Britain's first high-speed rail line.
It meant that important information that could have been used by Parliament to consider other projects, including the HS2 high speed line, was not available.
The PAC claimed it denied Parliament the ability to use "important information" when considering HS2.
Meg Hillier, the committee's chairwoman, said the issues over the Eurostar sale and the HS1 report "raise serious questions about the government's approach to valuing public assets, as well as its commitment to considering the value for money of public spending on such expensive projects".
She highlighted concerns that the sale of Royal Mail, whose shares soared after its stock market flotation, was also undervalued.
The Treasury, the PAC concluded, relies too much on a "small pool" of financial advisers.
The government's 40% holding in Eurostar was sold for £585.1m to Patina Rail, an investment consortium. But the Treasury, and its advisers UBS, put a price tag of £305m on the stake.
The sale of the government's entire stake in Eurostar has netted £757m, although that is far less than the estimated expenditure on the project of £3bn, the PAC said.
A Treasury spokeswoman said: "The government welcomes the committee's conclusion that the sale of our stake in Eurostar was well-handled and secured a good return for the taxpayer.
"Releasing public assets we no longer need is at the heart of our long-term plan to tackle Britain's debts and boost economic growth, and that's why we've recently identified up to £4.6bn of further asset sales, to help build on the huge progress we've already made."
She said it would be misleading to suggest the government "set out" to undervalue its assets and added that its approach to Eurostar was approved by an independent adviser.


Oxford United owner Darryl Eales has acknowledged the club will largely have to put player recruitment on hold until a new manager has been appointed.

The League One club are searching for a successor to Michael Appleton, who joined Leicester City as assistant.
"Most importantly, we have got to try to make the right decision," Eales said of the managerial vacancy.
"If this had happened a month earlier, it would have made recruitment of players so much simpler."
Eales has confirmed that Oxford missed out on signing defender Liam Lindsay from Partick and midfielder Conor McAleny from Everton as a result of Appleton's departure earlier this month.
Lindsay opted to join Championship club Barnsley after Oxford's initial interest, while former Oxford loanee McAleny agreed a move to fellow League One side Fleetwood on Friday.
"That's nobody's fault," Eales said. "Stuff like this happens in football.
"The reality is we're not going to be able to bring in all the players we want because of the circumstances we find ourselves in.
"We do have to try to make the decision (for a new manager) quickly, but if the right decision means it takes us a bit longer, that's fine.
"There's nothing fundamentally broken that we can't start pre-season with 100% of the staff who are there already."


Plaid Cymru is unlikely to make cutting the top rate of tax one of its policies if Wales ever receives income tax varying powers, its leader has said.

Leanne Wood spoke against a call by former Plaid MP Adam Price during the party's spring conference to consider the idea as a way of creating jobs.
Ms Wood told BBC Wales income tax powers for Wales were many years away.
She doubted many Plaid Cymru delegates would agree with Mr Price but added it was an "interesting debate".
Speaking on Radio Wales' Sunday Supplement, Ms Wood said Mr Price had made the suggestion before.
"We're not in a position to outline our tax policy at this stage. It's very unlikely that if Wales does get tax sharing powers that we will have these powers before 2021 according to the Silk process," she told the programme.
"What we need to do in Wales is turn around the economy.
"We've got to do everything that we can to create jobs. I'm not going to stifle debate on how we do that.
"We have to have business support to create jobs. We can't do it in the public sector alone or creating jobs in charities.
"We've got to have a strong business sector; stronger than we've already got."
However, she added: "I don't agree with Adam's position on cutting the top rate of tax and I'm sure that many delegates in Plaid Cymru wouldn't agree with that either, but it's an interesting debate."
On Friday, Ms Wood used her conference speech to urge voters to reject "damaging Europhobia" led by UKIP in May's European elections.
She appealed to ex-Liberal and Green voters not to stay at home, and said only Plaid Cymru could "further the Welsh national interest at the heart of Europe".
She argued voting for Plaid was the way to keep issues such as climate change, international cooperation and tax avoidance on the European agenda, and said the May election could be the last of its kind in the UK if "we do not make our voices heard".
She called a vote for UKIP "a vote against Wales - a vote against the Welsh national interest".
Nathan Gill, UKIP's Welsh lead candidate for the European elections said supporters and members were angered by Ms Wood's claim that voting for UKIP meant people were against Wales.
He said recent polls showed UK were "outpolling Plaid Cymru for this May's Euro election.
"For the party to descend to gutter politics and mud slinging is bigoted and outrageous."
Former Plaid leader and former assembly presiding officer Dafydd Elis-Thomas later criticised Ms Wood for her attack on UKIP.
He said: "It is facile and assumes a kind of superiority that we decide who is Welsh and who is not Welsh.
"A party which gets votes from ordinary citizens in Wales has to be taken seriously.
"It clearly represents a point of view in Wales."


Daryl Mitchell completed an unbeaten century, but persistent rain saw only 17.2 overs bowled on day three between Worcestershire and Northants.

Resuming on 86, Mitchell reached his 23rd first-class hundred, his first in 13 months, when he luckily edged Ben Sanderson to the third-man boundary.
After a four-hour rain delay, debutant Chad Barrett took a first Championship wicket, England Lions' Joe Clarke.
Bad light caused an abandonment with the hosts on 195-3, still 356 behind.
Worcestershire captain Mitchell, who had previously managed a first-class season's best of only 66, had enjoyed a chanceless innings until, on 98, Sanderson found his edge.
But the ball went to Rory Kleinveldt's left hand, where it was spilled before reaching the boundary to bring up Mitchell's century.
The 32-year-old shared a 152-run second-wicket stand with Tom Fell, who was brilliantly caught behind by a diving David Murphy off Sanderson.
The players went off soon after as the rain began to fall but, although just four overs were bowled after the resumption, it was enough time for Barrett's welcome scalp when Clarke played at a ball outside his off stump.
Worcestershire skipper Daryl Mitchell told BBC Hereford & Worcester:
"It is nice to contribute a major innings in red-ball cricket. Obviously I haven't got the runs I would have liked so to get over that line means a lot to me.
"The season has been a bit stop start for me. Three or four 50s and quite a lot of 30s and 40s, a lot of starts. I've found various ways to get out, caught in the ring and run-outs and things like that.
"Eventually it has to turn, and I've kept working hard. I got my rewards and had a bit of luck. I gave them a chance of getting me out but fortunately it went through the slip cordon for four."
Northants skipper Alex Wakely told BBC Radio Northampton:
"It has been a really frustrating day. The weather conditions were actually very good for bowling.
"Unfortunately we didn't get long enough in one go. Ben Sanderson again was outstanding, put the ball in the right areas and was making it talk.
"But Chad Barrett also ran in hard for us and got a few balls around the batsmen's head."


Rome has banished the Centurions from its ancient sites.

Impersonators of soldiers from ancient Rome have been a common sight at the Colosseum, Forum and other major sites, posing for photos in return for cash.
But from Thursday, the Centurions are outlaws - along with bicycle-drawn rickshaw drivers and ticket touts.
City commissioner Francesco Paolo Tronca issued the decree ahead of the Catholic Jubilee year, an important tourist event starting on 8 December.
He is in charge of the city pending the election of a new mayor and cited security issues as well as protecting tourists from scams as the reasons for the decree.
It spoke of the "inappropriate, insistent and sometimes aggressive" behaviour of Centurions, who charge between â‚¬5 and â‚¬10 ($5.3-$10.6) for a photo. They can also get tips from tour organisers for persuading tourists to go on guided trips.
Many of the impersonators commute in from poorer districts of the capital. There have been incidents of "gladiators" attacking each other to defend their pitches at lucrative sites.
Offering a ride in a rickshaw is also banned in some areas, as are touts offering bus and museum tickets.
This year Pope Francis declared an Extraordinary Jubilee Year for the Catholic Church, beginning on 8 December, the 50th anniversary of the end of the Second Vatican Council.
It will end on 20 November 2016, the Feast of Christ the King.
Parks and piazzas are being spruced up for the event, which is expected to boost the numbers of visitors to Rome significantly.
Millions of pilgrims attended the last event in 2000.


July was the hottest month on Earth since records began, averaging 16.6 C (61.9 F), according to US scientists.

That is 0.08 degrees higher than the previous record, set in July 1998 - a significant margin in weather records.
Scientists at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said in a report that they expect 2015 to be the hottest year on record.
Nine of the 10 hottest months since records began in 1880 have occurred since 2005, they NOAA report said.
Scientists say global climate change and the impacts of the El Nino weather phenomenon are behind the record temperatures.
The first seven months of 2015 have already set an all-time temperature record for the period.
"The world is warming. It is continuing to warm. That is being shown time and time again in our data," said Jake Crouch, physical scientist at NOAA's National Centres for Environmental Information.
"Now that we are fairly certain that 2015 will be the warmest year on record, it is time to start looking at what are the impacts of that? What does that mean for people on the ground?" Mr Crouch said.
That July was an extremely hot month shouldn't come as a huge surprise. It's normally the warmest month of the year for the world as a whole.
According to the Met Office, the UK had its warmest July day ever on July 1, when temperatures hit 36.7 C near London. There were record heat waves in many countries including Spain, while the African continent had the second-warmest July on record.
While the impact of increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is a key driver of rising temperatures, another important factor is El Nino. This natural phenomenon, which appears as a large swathe of warm water in the Pacific every few years, is known to push up global temperatures.
In recent days there have been reports that this year's El Nino will be particularly intense. As a result, many experts believe that 2015 will be the warmest year on record by some margin.
The seas have also been soaking up a large amount of heat, the NOAA said, with record warming in large expanses of the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
When scientists looked at both sea and land for the year to date, they found combined a combined average temperature of 0.85 C above the 20th-Century average.
The NOAA calculated the rate of temperature increase for July at an average of 0.65 C per century.
Peter Stott, head of climate monitoring and attribution at the UK Met Office, said: "A strong El Nino is under way in the tropical Pacific and this, combined with the long-term global warming trend, means there is the potential to see some very warm months throughout this year - as the new figures for July appear to show.
"This is consistent with the Met Office's global temperature forecast which predicted that a record or near record year is very much on the cards for 2015."


Frederic Frans has left Partick Thistle after turning down the offer of a new deal at Firhill.

The Belgian defender played 44 games for Thistle after arriving on a free transfer from Lierse in his homeland.
"Thanks to all my team-mates from the past two seasons, I made some friends for life," Frans said in a statement on Twitter.
"And of course the fans... from the first game until the last you supported me. Once a Jag, always a Jag."


An Israeli air strike has killed six members of Hezbollah in the Syrian sector of the Golan Heights, the Lebanese militant movement says.

Among those reported dead were the son of a late military leader, a current commander, and at least one Iranian.
Hezbollah's al-Manar TV said they were killed in Quneitra province "during a field reconnaissance mission".
Israel said it would not comment, though unnamed sources confirmed an Israeli helicopter strike.
They claimed those targeted were conducting reconnaissance for a Hezbollah attack.
Those who died include Jihad Mughniyeh, the son of a top military commander killed in 2008, and Mohammed Issa, a Hezbollah field commander, Hezbollah officials said.
One member of Iran's Revolutionary Guards had died, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Iran's semi-official Tabnak news agency said several Revolutionary Guards had been killed.
The incident comes days after a warning to Israel by the Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, that his forces might retaliate against what he called repeated Israeli strikes inside Syria.
He said his forces had been stockpiling weapons for such a confrontation and that these included long range missiles that could hit every part of Israel.
Following Sunday's strike, al-Manar said Israel was "playing with fire that puts the security of the whole Middle East on edge".
Hezbollah militants have been supporting President Bashar al-Assad in a four-year Syrian conflict that activists say has left more than 200,000 people dead.
Israel has conducted several air strikes inside Syria since the conflict began, said to be aimed at preventing the transfer of stockpiles of rockets from the Syrian government or Iran to Hezbollah.
Israel fought a 34-day war with Hezbollah, a mainly Shia group backed by Iran, in 2006.
Jihad Mughniyeh is the son of Imad Mugniyeh, who was killed in a bombing in a bombing in Damascus in 2008. Hezbollah blamed Israel for the death, but Israel denied it.
Imad Mughniyeh was widely believed to be behind a wave of Western hostage-taking in Lebanon during the 1980s.
Most of the Golan Heights, a rocky plateau in south-western Syria, were seized by Israel from Syria in the closing stages of the 1967 Middle East War. About 200 sq miles remained under Syrian control.
The two countries remain technically in a state of war, and UN observers are deployed to monitor a 70km-long (45-mile) demilitarised zone.
Profile: Hezbollah


Julia Roberts is to star in her first television series.

The actress will appear in a TV adaptation of Maria Semple's novel Today Will Be Different, which was published in September.
Semple will write the mini-series herself, while Roberts's own company Red Om Films will produce it.
Roberts has previously appeared as a guest star in such TV shows as Friends and Law & Order, but this will be her first lead role in a series.
Today Will Be Different tells the story of a woman named Eleanor Flood who makes plans to have the best day of her life, but wakes up to find a strange new future unfolding.
In a statement, Semple said: "I'm giddy that Eleanor Flood will be brought to life by Julia Roberts... This will be a fun ride!"
It has not yet been confirmed which network will broadcast the show.
Roberts won an Oscar for best actress in 2001 for her role in Erin Brockovich and has also starred in films including Notting Hill, Pretty Woman and Runaway Bride.
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.


A jaguar has been shot dead shortly after it was used in an Olympic torch relay in the Brazilian city of Manaus, the army said.

The female jaguar escaped its handlers after the ceremony on Monday and attacked a soldier, a spokesman said.
Four tranquiliser darts failed to stop it and a soldier shot it with a pistol.
Organisers for the Rio Games said it had been a mistake to exhibit the Olympic torch next to a chained wild animal.
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University of Brasilia animal behaviour scientist Joao Paulo Castro told BBC Brasil that it was likely the animal escaped because it got stressed during the relay.
"It's neither healthy nor advisable to subject an animal to such a situation, with lots of noise and people," he said.
"Often, jaguars already are stressed by being kept in captivity, that's only compounded when they're exposed to hubbub."
Animal rights groups have condemned the killing, with some questioning why the animal was involved in the Olympic event.
"When will we learn? Wild animals held captive and forced to do things that are frightening, sometimes painful, and always unnatural are ticking time bombs," Brittany Peet, director of captive animal law enforcement at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), said in a statement.
The animal called Juma was being kept at a zoo attached to a military jungle training camp.
It was rescued as a cub by soldiers after its mother died in the jungle and was brought up at the camp, the military said.
Jaguars seized from hunters are sometimes kept as mascots by jungle battalions and shown at military parades.
An investigation into the jaguar's death will now be carried out by the military.
The Olympic torch is relayed through Brazil leading up to the August opening ceremony.


Barcelona's Lionel Messi became the Champions League's all-time top scorer with a hat-trick against Apoel Nicosia.

Messi went into the Group F game in Cyprus level on 71 goals with former Real Madrid forward Raul.
Luis Suarez had already opened the scoring with his first goal for the club when Messi diverted Rafinha's 38th-minute shot past the keeper.
Messi netted his second in the 58th-minute with a low right-foot finish before tapping home from close range.
"I am happy for having achieved such a nice record in a competition of this importance," said the 27-year-old.
"But the really relevant thing is that we took the three points.
"Barcelona played a great match."
It is Messi's second major record in four days, having scored a landmark 253rd Spanish top-flight goal with a hat-trick against Sevilla on Saturday.
Messi's latest achievement earned him glowing praise from his manager Luis Enrique.
"I'll say it again, he's the best ever in this game," said the former Spain midfielder.
Both teams finished with 10 men on Tuesday, Rafinha sent off for two bookable offences 20 minutes from time before Apoel Nicosia's Joao Guilherme followed him 14 minutes later, also for a second booking.
It was Messi's 28th Barcelona hat-trick, and his fifth in the Champions League.
The Argentina international now has 74 Champions League goals in 91 appearances in the competition.
Raul's 71 goals came in 142 games.
Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo, who is expected to line up at Basel on Wednesday in the competition, has 70 goals.
Barcelona had already qualified for the knockout stages before their visit to Cyprus.
Enrique's side are second in Group F with one game to go.
But they will advance to the last 16 as group winners if they beat current group leaders Paris St-Germain at the Nou Camp on 10 December.
Match ends, APOEL Nicosia 0, Barcelona 4.
Second Half ends, APOEL Nicosia 0, Barcelona 4.
Corner,  Barcelona. Conceded by Marios Antoniades.
Xavi (Barcelona) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Rafik Djebbour (APOEL Nicosia).
Dani Alves (Barcelona) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Rafik Djebbour (APOEL Nicosia).
Attempt missed. Pedro (Barcelona) right footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the left. Assisted by Xavi.
Goal!  APOEL Nicosia 0, Barcelona 4. Lionel Messi (Barcelona) right footed shot from the left side of the six yard box to the centre of the goal. Assisted by Pedro.
Sergio Busquets (Barcelona) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Cillian Sheridan (APOEL Nicosia).
Attempt missed. Lionel Messi (Barcelona) left footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the left from a direct free kick.
Second yellow card to João Guilherme (APOEL Nicosia) for a bad foul.
Pedro (Barcelona) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by João Guilherme (APOEL Nicosia).
Lionel Messi (Barcelona) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Carlao (APOEL Nicosia).
Dani Alves (Barcelona) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Rafik Djebbour (APOEL Nicosia).
Marc Bartra (Barcelona) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Tomás De Vincenti (APOEL Nicosia).
Lionel Messi (Barcelona) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Rafik Djebbour (APOEL Nicosia).
Substitution, Barcelona. Sergio Busquets replaces Luis Suárez.
Dani Alves (Barcelona) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by Marios Antoniades (APOEL Nicosia).
Substitution, APOEL Nicosia. Rafik Djebbour replaces Vinicius.
Offside, Barcelona. Luis Suárez tries a through ball, but Lionel Messi is caught offside.
Attempt saved. Luis Suárez (Barcelona) right footed shot from the right side of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Lionel Messi.
Second yellow card to Rafinha (Barcelona) for a bad foul.
Foul by Rafinha (Barcelona).
Tomás De Vincenti (APOEL Nicosia) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Corner,  Barcelona. Conceded by João Guilherme.
Attempt missed. Luis Suárez (Barcelona) left footed shot from the right side of the box misses to the left. Assisted by Lionel Messi.
Attempt saved. Tomás De Vincenti (APOEL Nicosia) right footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Cillian Sheridan.
Attempt blocked. Rafinha (Barcelona) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked.
Attempt missed. Tomás De Vincenti (APOEL Nicosia) right footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Tiago Gomes.
Attempt blocked. Dani Alves (Barcelona) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
Substitution, APOEL Nicosia. Tomás De Vincenti replaces Gustavo Manduca.
Substitution, Barcelona. Adriano replaces Jordi Alba.


A local Taliban commander and 50 fighters have been killed in overnight fighting in Sangin in Helmand province, the Afghan interior ministry said.

Afghan forces have been trying to recapture the area from the Taliban, who claim to control the district.
Afghan officials said they retook key buildings in a counter-attack, while the US carried out air strikes.
The ministry named the dead commander as Mullah Nasir, a confidant of Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour.
Strategically located, and a centre for opium production, Sangin would be a significant gain for the Taliban.
Fighting around the town has escalated in the past week, and by Wednesday the militants said they had captured all of Sangin, pinning down government troops in an army barracks.
This was denied by the Afghan defence ministry, who said fighting was continuing and that reinforcements had been sent.
The interior ministry said the Afghan army and police commandos launched an operation late on Wednesday, leading to the deaths of the Taliban commander and his fighters.
Several local officials said the district governor's office and police headquarters in Sangin's centre had been retaken.
"Last night fresh forces arrived, they provided ammunitions and food to forces at the battalion and launched a counterattack," Helmand senator Hashim Alokozai said.
"They recaptured the district and police HQ and the wounded were evacuated. We hope they will make further progress today."
It remains unclear whether the Taliban were fully in control of Sangin, with Afghan officials giving conflicting information about the state of their advance.
Meanwhile US planes launched two air strikes on Taliban positions shortly before midnight on 23 December, a Nato spokesman said.
Read more about Sangin
Harsh lessons from Sangin
Who are the Taliban?
Despite the reports of Afghan government gains, the Taliban remain in control of large parts of Helmand.
Sangin residents have been fleeing as the fighting worsened.
A small contingent of British troops has been sent to Helmand "in an advisory role," the British government said on Tuesday.
Sangin saw almost a quarter of British military fatalities during the UK's combat mission in Afghanistan.
In September, the Taliban briefly overran the northern Afghan city of Kunduz in one of their biggest victories since 2001.


Britain's Chris Froome lost the leader's yellow jersey to Fabio Aru as France's Romain Bardet won stage 12 of the Tour de France in Peyragudes.

The Team Sky rider cracked on the brutal uphill finish, finishing seventh, and Italy's Aru pounced to take the race lead by just six seconds.
Bardet climbed to victory on the 214.5km stage to move third overall.
Colombia's Rigoberto Uran was second on the stage, followed by Aru and Froome's Team Sky team-mate Mikel Landa.
"It was a tough day for me in the final metres and my team-mates had done such an amazing job," said Froome.
"But I didn't have the legs to finish it off, it's as simple as that. No excuses. I just didn't have the legs on the final kick."
British champion Steve Cummings made a long solo break on the 50th anniversary of the death of compatriot Tom Simpson but was caught inside the final 10km on the penultimate climb.
Britain's Simon Yates moved up to sixth overall after finishing ninth on the stage and retains the best young rider's white jersey.
Media playback is not supported on this device
For the majority of this first day in the Pyrenees - the second longest stage of this year's Tour - Team Sky successfully employed their familiar tactic of sitting at the front of the peloton, keeping the pace just high enough to neutralise attacks by defending champion Froome's rivals.
All seven of Froome's remaining team-mates were still in place at the foot of the highest climb of the day - the 'hors categorie' Port de Bales - before Landa and fellow Spaniard Mikel Nieve guided their leader into the final few kilometres.
New Zealand's George Bennett attacked in the final kilometre and although Landa reeled him in, Aru then kicked.
He distanced Froome as Uran and Bardet bridged the gap before the Frenchman found enough power to haul himself up a section with a gradient of 16% to win.
Uran and Aru followed two seconds later but Froome was still struggling in visible pain behind, eventually losing 22 seconds to stage-winner Bardet and with it the yellow jersey to Aru.
Whether Froome's style simply did not suit the punchy 2.4km final climb, or whether there are issues with his form this year, remains to be seen.
Having won his first Tour stage at La Planche des Belles Filles on stage five, Aru now has the first yellow jersey of his career.
The Astana rider closely marked Froome throughout the stage - albeit a little too close when he followed the Briton and Nieve off the road as they overshot a corner at the foot of the Peyresourde, only to easily catch back up - and attacked with just enough road left to take the overall lead.
Aru's Astana team have been considerably weakened, however.
Dario Cataldo abandoned after a crash on stage 11 and Jakob Fuglsang could follow, having had to battle to finish stage 12 after suffering two fractures in the same crash that forced his team-mate out of the Tour.
Bardet - bidding to become the first French Tour winner since Bernard Hinault in 1985 - finished a distant second to Froome in last year's Tour but has shown more attacking intent in this edition, epitomised by the words, "Take the risk or lose the chance," printed on the top tube of his bike.
Cannondale-Drapac rider Uran was impressive in finishing second but he and Bennett were later given 20-second time penalties for taking bottles in the final 10km.
After a frantic scramble for position early on, a group of 12 riders broke clear, including Team Dimension Data's Cummings - an expert in long, solo victories from breakaways, having won Tour stages in this manner in both 2015 and 2016.
The group gradually thinned until just Cummings and Belgium's Thomas de Gendt remained, before the Briton attacked to pass over the summit of the Port de Bales alone, only to be caught on the Peyresourde.
Cummings may look to get in a breakaway again, with stage 19 in particular a potential target.
Friday's stage 13 is a short but mountainous 101km route from Saint-Giron to Foix, taking place on Bastille Day.
French riders are almost duty bound to attack on their national day and with Bardet's descending skills, could he win the race into Foix and make it back-to-back stage wins?
Stage 12 result:
1. Romain Bardet (Fra/AG2R) 5hrs 49mins 38secs
2. Rigoberto Uran (Col/Cannondale) +2sec
3. Fabio Aru (Ita/Astana) Same time
4. Mikel Landa (GB/Sky) +5secs
5. Louis Meintjes (SA/Team UAE Emirates) +7secs
6. Dan Martin (Ire/Quick-Step) +13secs
7. Chris Froome (GB/Team Sky) +22secs
8. George Bennett (NZ/LottoNL-Jumbo) +27secs
9. Simon Yates (GB/Orica) Same time
10. Mikel Nieve (Spa/Team Sky) +1min 28secs
General classification after stage 12:
1. Fabio Aru (Ita/Astana) 52hrs 51minutes 49secs
2. Chris Froome (GB/Team Sky) +6secs
3. Romain Bardet (Fra/AG2R) +25secs
4. Rigoberto Uran (Col/Cannondale) +55secs
5. Dan Martin (Ire/Quick-Step) +1min 41secs
6. Simon Yates (GB/Orica) +2min 13secs
7. Mikel Landa (Spa/Team Sky) +2min 55secs
8. Nairo Quintana (Col/Movistar) +4min 01sec
9. George Bennett (NZ/LottoNL-Jumbo) +4min 24secs
10. Louis Meintjes (SA/Team UAE Emirates) +4min 51secs


More than 1,100 pieces of material which breach anti-terrorism legislation are being taken down from the internet each week, according to the head of the police unit tackling online extremism.

Det Ch Supt Sue Southern, who also leads the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit, was involved in the case against two Birmingham men who pleaded guilty to preparing to carry out terrorist acts.
Nahin Ahmed and Yusuf Sarwar, who travelled to Syria to join rebel fighters, were jailed for 12 years and eight months at Woolwich Crown Court.
Ms Southern said stopping people being recruited to terrorist groups online was a "significant challenge".
"My workload, as is reflected across the country, has increased five fold - we are holding the biggest case load outside London," she said.
Ahmed had sought advice via the internet from a fighter in Syria and from extremists in Denmark and Sweden.
Ms Southern said both men had used "an element of deception" to hide what they were planning to do from their families.
"They'd produced a mock-up of a poster claiming to be a university trip out to Turkey - the family initially believed that but then became suspicious and came forward to the police to raise the alarm," she said.
When the men returned to the UK, police found "significant high levels of explosive residue" on their clothing and glasses, and there were also images of them holding weapons.
"The ability for them to come back and potentially launch attacks back here in the UK - that's the risk, that's the concern,"  Ms Southern said.
She called for people to come forward "much sooner", if they believed someone had become radicalised.
"We are very grateful to both families and we are sympathetic to where [they] find themselves, with their sons facing prison sentences.
"We hope this gives people the confidence to come forward, but to come forward sooner."


Kinlochshiel emerged as the only Marine Harvest Premiership team with full points from their first two games after a 4-2 defeat of Lovat at Kiltarlity.

Champions Newtonmore failed to win for only the third time since 2015 when they came from behind for a 1-1 draw away to resurgent Glenurquhart.
Oban Camanachd swept Lochaber aside 7-0 at Mossfield Park and it finished goalless between Kingussie and newly-promoted Kilmallie at The Dell, where Kilmallie's Michael Rodger was sent off.
Keith MacRae gave Shiel an early lead, which was extended by John MacRae, before Jordan Fraser made it 3-0 on the half-hour mark.
Graeme MacMillan pulled one back for Lovat after the interval, but MacRae struck again almost immediately.
A further goal from Greg Matheson was all Lovat, who remain pointless, could muster.
Daniel MacKintosh gave Glenurquhart the lead after just four minutes against the reigning champions, but Norman Campbell's second-half effort spared More a first league defeat for two seasons.
It was one-way traffic in Oban, where Andrew McCuish opened after 10 minutes before Daniel MacVicar and Aidan MacIntyre struck in the first half - and Malcolm Clark then Conor Howe netted in the second before McCuish and Howe completed doubles.
Lochaber, like Lovat, still seek their first point.
In the National Division, Fort William, like Kinlochshiel in the Premiership, are the only side on four points from two games following a hard-fought 3-2 home win over newly-promoted Strathglass.
Strath led twice and only succumbed to JD MacMaster's winner.
The attacking impotency that contributed to Skye's relegation last season re-emerged in their goalless draw with Caberfeidh at Strathpeffer, while Robbie Brindle got Beauly's winner as they came from behind to beat Inverness 2-1.


The mother of a Somali teenager who survived a US flight in a wheel well has told the BBC of her shock and relief to discover he is alive.

Ubah Mohamed Abdullahi, who lives in a refugee camp in Ethiopia, says it was the first news she had heard about her "lost son" for six years.
Divorced from his father, she has not been in contact with the family since they moved to the US in 2008.
The boy's father said the 16-year-old had been trying to return to Somalia.
Yahya Abdi survived lack of oxygen and freezing temperatures on a five-hour flight from California to Hawaii.
Ms Abdullahi said that both her brother and father who live in Europe had phoned to tell her about her son Yahya's lucky escape.
"My father watched the news from the TV and saw the pictures of my son, and then he called me and told me that he had seen my son on news channels," she told the BBC Somali service.
"Thank God, now he is safe and in a good condition."
Talking on the phone from a refugee camp in Sheed Dheer where she has lived since 2008, Ms Abdullahi said she was shocked that her son could have put himself in such danger.
BBC Somali's Abdifitah Ibrahim Cagayare says in the middle of the interview Ms Abdullahi broke down and sobbed uncontrollably.
She said that since her two sons and daughter went to the US in 2008 with her ex-husband she had been desperately trying to get in touch with them.
"We are divorcedâ€¦ I called him [her ex-husband] several times through his relatives and he refused to talk to me," she said.
"I want to hear the voice of my children, I want to see them, please help me and guide me to that, please," the mother wept.
After Yahya Abdi was found disorientated on the runway in Maui on Sunday, he reportedly told investigators he had been in an argument at home and then went to the airport, choosing the aircraft nearest to the fence.
In an interview with US broadcaster Voice of America, the boy's father, Abdilahi Yusuf Abdi, said "Allah had saved" his son.
He said his son was "always talking about going back to Africa" and since the family came to the US, the boy had been bothered by "education problems".
Since 1991 Somalia has seen clan-based warlords, rival politicians and Islamist militants battle for control - a situation that has allowed lawlessness and piracy to flourish.
The years of anarchy and drought have forced many Somalis to seek sanctuary elsewhere but since a UN-backed government was installed in 2012, a small measure of stability has returned to some areas of the country.


Fabio Saraiva's 11th goal of the season saw Woking end a run of two straight defeats with a win over Solihull Moors.

Woking went ahead just three minutes into the game when defender Terrell Thomas headed home his first goal of the season from close range following a corner from the right.
Kristian Green prevented Woking from doubling their lead five minutes before the break when he cleared off the line following another corner.
Shepherd Murombedzi then headed straight at Michael Poke from Omari Sterling's cross on the stroke of half-time as Solihull threatened.
And Solihull almost pulled level nine minutes after the break when George Carline met Sterling's corner but his effort was hacked off the line.
The goal Solihull deserved came after 59 minutes when Sterling's shot was not held by Poke and Murombedzi turned the rebound into the net.
That equaliser brought Woking to life and Nathan Baxter tipped over Gozie Ugwu's shot before they went back ahead when Saraiva slotted home Ugwu's cross from the right.
The lively Ugwu then hit the crossbar late on from an acute angle.
Report supplied by the Press Association.
Match ends, Woking 2, Solihull Moors 1.
Second Half ends, Woking 2, Solihull Moors 1.
Substitution, Solihull Moors. Oladapo Afolayan replaces Simeon Maye.
Goal!  Woking 2, Solihull Moors 1. Fabio Saraiva (Woking).
Regan Charles-Cook (Solihull Moors) is shown the yellow card.
Substitution, Solihull Moors. Jack Byrne replaces Nortei Nortey.
Substitution, Solihull Moors. Harry White replaces Shepherd Murombedzi.
Substitution, Woking. Connor Hall replaces Macauley Bonne.
Substitution, Woking. Charlie Carter replaces Nathan Ralph.
Goal!  Woking 1, Solihull Moors 1. Shepherd Murombedzi (Solihull Moors).
Terell Thomas (Woking) is shown the yellow card.
Second Half begins Woking 1, Solihull Moors 0.
First Half ends, Woking 1, Solihull Moors 0.
Nathan Ralph (Woking) is shown the yellow card.
Goal!  Woking 1, Solihull Moors 0. Terell Thomas (Woking).
First Half begins.
Lineups are announced and players are warming up.


Bacteria that resist the most common antibiotic of last resort - colistin - have been discovered in the UK.

Officials say the threat to human health is low, but is under ongoing review.
Scientists warned the world was on the cusp of a post-antibiotic era when such resistance was discovered in China last month.
Now checks have discovered the same resistance on three farms and in samples of human infections.
When all other antibiotics fail then doctors turn to colistin - that's why it is so important.
Doctors in the UK thought they had three years before colistin-resistance would spread from China to the UK.
But Public Health England and the Animal and Plant Health Agency began testing for it.
Public Health England has gone through the 24,000 bacterial samples it keeps on record from cases between 2012 and 2015.
Colistin-resistance was discovered in fifteen of them, including samples of Salmonella and E. Coli.
The Animal and Plant Health Agency has discovered colistin-resistant bacteria on three pig farms.
The news will not be a massive surprise after similar discoveries in parts of Europe, Asia and Africa.
It raises the prospect of untreatable infections - what is known as the antibiotic apocalypse and threatens to plunge medicine back into the dark ages.
The DNA that gives bacteria resistance to colistin - the mcr-1 gene - can spread rapidly between species.
The concern is that colistin-resistance will now find its way into other superbugs to create infections that doctors cannot treat.
Prof Alan Johnson, from Public Health England, said: "Our assessment is that the public health risk posed by this gene is currently considered very low, but is subject to ongoing review as more information becomes available.
"The organisms identified can be killed by cooking your food properly and all the bacteria we identified with this gene were responsive to other antibiotics, called carbapenems.
"We will monitor this closely, and will provide any further public advice as needed."
The Chinese resistance cases were down to overuse of antibiotics in agriculture.
Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics says 837kg of colistin was sold to British farms in 2014.
Coilin Nunan, from the Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics, said: "We need the government, the European Commission and regulatory bodies like the Veterinary Medicines Directorate to respond urgently.
"The routine preventative use in farming of colistin, and all antibiotics important in human medicine, needs to be banned immediately."
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said colistin made up just 0.2% of the antibiotics used in livestock in the UK.
A spokesperson said: "We are enhancing our surveillance for colistin resistance, and veterinary prescribers have voluntarily updated prescribing guidelines to restrict use of colistin in animals."
Follow James on Twitter.


An engineer travelling from India to Britain in a self-modified solar and electric-powered tuk-tuk has been robbed in France, derailing the final leg of a seven-month journey.

Naveen Rabelli had his passport and wallet stolen from his parked tuk-tuk in Sarcelles while using a bathroom.
He is waiting for a new passport to cross the English Channel and finish his journey at Buckingham Palace.
Mr Rabelli is trying to draw attention to renewable energy.
"I have been on road for seven months now, and have been dreaming to get to [the] UK. For four years I have been preparing for this," he told the BBC.
"It really sucks to have lost my passport and 1,000 euros" while en route to Calais to take a ferry to the UK, he said
Mr Rabelli has been helped by strangers along his journey, which took him through Iran, Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Austria, Germany and Switzerland.
He sleeps in his auto-rickshaw when not offered accommodation and managed to save up money along the way.
"People donated. I sold olive oil in [a] market, I sold my postcards, I sold Greek liquor," he said.
The 35-year-old, an Australian national and Indian resident, has worked for Mahindra Reva, an Indian electric car company.
He bought the diesel tuk-tuk for $1,500 (Â£1,120) and spent $11,500 customising it. It has a top speed of 60km/h (37 mph) and is powered by both electricity and solar power.
The vehicle has a bed and a solar cooker.


A great-grandmother has had life-saving cancer surgery - at the age of 102, and without a general anaesthetic.

Adelaide Kershaw, of Littleborough near Rochdale, had a lump the size of a tangerine removed from her forehead.
She is the oldest patient to have had surgery at The Christie, the specialist cancer hospital in Manchester said.
After the operation to treat her rare form of skin cancer, Ms Kershaw said she was "well", adding: "I just want to get walking again."
Her consultant at the hospital, Damir Kosutic, said the tumour was causing her great difficulties but she "came through the surgery really well and was very brave".
"Not every patient would be able to have that sort of extensive surgery while awake," he added.
One of Ms Kershaw's two daughters, Christine Garvey, said her mother - who has four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren - was "keen to get back to her crocheting".


The number of road traffic collisions in a Devon city has increased following the introduction of major roadworks.

The works on Gdynia Way near Plymouth's city centre have been in place since June to widen the road to three lanes.
But police said they had seen an increase in the number of collisions on the Maxwell Road, Macadam Road junction.
Plymouth City Council (PCC) said a new set of temporary traffic lights would be put on the junction.
Pc Ian Tanner, Plymouth's road casualty reduction officer said: "There have been some collisions since the new system was put in place, with four or five injury collisions in that area.
"The council are diverting quite large volumes of traffic on to roads that, although perfectly up to the job, people don't usually travel on, and as a result it hasn't worked as well as we would have liked it to.
"It's a balancing act for the council, as to what is the best thing to do, to keep the traffic moving as well as they can and to keep the level of injuries down."
Pc Tanner added that the increase in collisions could also be a result of drivers, familiar with the route, not reading new signs properly.
In a statement, PCC said: "During the last couple of months it has become apparent that there could be further improvements to the revised junction layout.
"The decision to install temporary lights has been made after routine discussions with various stakeholders including the police.
"The lights will reinforce the changed priorities and help drivers negotiate this junction."
The council said that up to 1,000 drivers used the junction each hour.
The new traffic lights will give priority to traffic travelling between Plymstock and the city centre in the morning and vice versa in the evening, until the work is completed in October.


A resident of the Short Strand area of east Belfast has challenged a decision to overturn a court ruling that the PSNI was wrong not to stop union flag protests.

A High Court judge in Belfast had ruled that the PSNI should not have facilitated illegal parades, and was wrong to think it did not have legal powers to stop them.
The ruling was quashed after an appeal.
The UK Supreme Court has now been asked to overturn the decision.
There were widespread loyalist protests across Northern Ireland after Belfast City Council decided not to fly the Union flag at the City Hall every day of the year in December 2012.
The protests included a weekly parade between east Belfast and City Hall, which passed the nationalist Short Strand area.
Critics accused the police of being too soft as some of the protests descended into violence.
The PSNI insisted it did not have the legal powers to stop them, and warned that doing so might have made the situation worse.
In April 2014, a judge in the High Court in Belfast upheld a claim by a Short Strand resident, who cannot be named to protect his safety, that the PSNI had failed in its legal duty to stop the parades.
The judge said the police had not understood the full scope of their powers and had facilitated illegal and sometimes violent parades, in breach of their legal duties.
That ruling was appealed by then Chief Constable Matt Baggott, and quashed by the Court of Appeal.
The legal battle moved to the UK Supreme Court in London on Tuesday.
A lawyer representing the unnamed resident, told five judges the PSNI had failed in its duty to enforce the law as set out in the Public Processions Northern Ireland Act (1998).
She argued that the Court of Appeal had no grounds to interfere and overturn the original trial decision as "the evidence before the court was unimpeachable".
The lawyer said there were "evident flaws" in the Court of Appeal decision and its analysis of the evidence.
Lord Neuberger, President of the Supreme Court, asked her: "So you say that we should go back to the trial judge and, provided we concluded that there was evidence on which he could fairly reach the decision that he did, that we should reinstate his decision?"
She replied: "Yes."
But a lawyer representing the PSNI said the Court of Appeal had made the correct decision.
He said the context of the time the protests had taken place was important.
He told the court the police had been dealing with a series of sporadic unplanned protests at more than 80 locations across Northern Ireland.
He insisted there had been "no error of law" and that the police fully understood that they could have stopped the parades, but took an operational decision not to so.
He said the police believed that "robust action" could have made the situation worse and took a deliberate decision to secure evidence of offences committed and to prosecute offenders afterwards.
The lawyer referred to research by Queen's University, which recorded that 306 people had been convicted of flag-protest-related offences across Northern Ireland in the months after the protests.
"Many would have considered the police approach to policing these parades was successful, and that their policy of de-escalation succeeded," he said.
The judges said they would announce their decision "in due course".


Repairs are to be carried out on a ship that lost power following a fire which broke out while it was transporting radioactive waste to Belgium.

The blaze started in one of the MV Parida's two funnels on Tuesday night.
It lost power and started drifting towards an oil platform in the Moray Firth. Fifty-two people on the rig were evacuated as a precaution.
The ship has been towed to the Port of Cromarty Firth at Invergordon. Police said there was no risk to the public.
The Parida, a vessel designed to handle heavy dangerous cargo, has two containers each holding three 500-litre drums of intermediate level waste.
The waste is the by-product of radioactive material from Belgium that was reprocessed at the Dounreay nuclear site near Thurso in Caithness in the 1990s.
It is being returned to Belgium because Dounreay is in the process of being closed down.
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority said the Parida and its cargo had been categorised at the lowest level of safety concern.
Police Scotland said the vessel was tied up at a secure pier within the Port of Cromarty Firth.
A spokesman said: "This is to allow repair work to be completed.
"There are no public safety concerns with the vessel or its cargo. The integrity of the vessel and the cargo has not been affected by the maritime incident.
"The vessel will remain alongside the pier with appropriate security measures until the repair work is completed."
He added: "Once a final inspection has taken place, a decision will be made on when the vessel can resume its journey."
Dounreay Site Restoration Limited has confirmed that other radioactive material could be moved by ship to Sellafield in Cumbria for reprocessing, or storage.
A trial run of the proposed shipments was completed last week.
Tuesday's incident has led to renewed calls from Comhairle nan Eilean Siar and Highland Council for an emergency tug boat to cover the west coast and the Western Isles.
Emergency tug cover for the area was removed in 2012.
For 10 years, two tugs were hired by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency to provide aid to stricken vessels around Scotland.
The UK government moved to end the contracts in late 2011 before agreeing to short extensions until March 2012.
In June 2012, it was announced funding for one tug to work "around Scotland's coast as required" would be provided until 2015.
Later, in February last year, a deal was brokered between the UK government and BP to use one of the oil company's vessels to provide emergency tug cover in the Northern Isles.


Bottom-placed Cambridge struck twice in the second half to clinch their first win of the season in League Two.

Rhys Healey's header gave Newport a 10th-minute lead on his full debut.
Adam McGurk almost equalised when his free-kick hit the crossbar, and Cambridge were eventually back on terms when Uche Ikpeazu fired in from Newport old boy Medi Elito's long ball.
And Cambridge claimed all the points when Luke Berry drove the ball home after a scramble.
The result sees County drop into the bottom two - ahead of Cambridge on goal difference.
Newport manager Warren Feeney said: "It's the story of our season to be honest.
"We can't keep giving the goals we're giving away. We can work at things all week but when you cross that white line that's the disappointing thing.
"But listen, I take full responsibility for everything.
"You can stand here and say this or say that, but the results don't lie. When we get up tomorrow it will say 2-1 to Cambridge."
Match ends, Newport County 1, Cambridge United 2.
Second Half ends, Newport County 1, Cambridge United 2.
Foul by Reece Grego-Cox (Newport County).
Harrison Dunk (Cambridge United) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Substitution, Cambridge United. Josh Coulson replaces Uche Ikpeazu.
Corner,  Newport County. Conceded by Harrison Dunk.
Foul by Rhys Healey (Newport County).
Brad Halliday (Cambridge United) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Uche Ikpeazu (Cambridge United) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by Dan Butler (Newport County).
Corner,  Cambridge United. Conceded by Scot Bennett.
Goal!  Newport County 1, Cambridge United 2. Luke Berry (Cambridge United) right footed shot from the left side of the six yard box to the centre of the goal following a set piece situation.
Foul by Sean Rigg (Newport County).
Medy Elito (Cambridge United) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Attempt missed. Josh Sheehan (Newport County) left footed shot from outside the box misses to the right.
Max Clark (Cambridge United) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Josh Sheehan (Newport County) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Max Clark (Cambridge United).
Substitution, Newport County. Josh Sheehan replaces Mark Randall.
Attempt missed. Kyle Cameron (Newport County) header from the centre of the box is too high.
Corner,  Newport County. Conceded by Greg Taylor.
Foul by Scot Bennett (Newport County).
Medy Elito (Cambridge United) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Attempt missed. Uche Ikpeazu (Cambridge United) header from the centre of the box is too high.
Reece Grego-Cox (Newport County) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Foul by Reece Grego-Cox (Newport County).
Harrison Dunk (Cambridge United) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Attempt blocked. Kyle Cameron (Newport County) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
Kyle Cameron (Newport County) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Foul by Max Clark (Cambridge United).
Attempt missed. Uche Ikpeazu (Cambridge United) right footed shot from outside the box misses to the right.
Substitution, Newport County. Marlon Jackson replaces Jon Parkin.
Corner,  Cambridge United. Conceded by Joe Day.
Attempt saved. Adam McGurk (Cambridge United) left footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the bottom left corner.
Attempt saved. Reece Grego-Cox (Newport County) header from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal.
Attempt saved. Mark Randall (Newport County) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom left corner.
Goal!  Newport County 1, Cambridge United 1. Uche Ikpeazu (Cambridge United) header from the left side of the six yard box to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Medy Elito following a set piece situation.
Foul by Kyle Cameron (Newport County).
Adam McGurk (Cambridge United) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Attempt saved. Rhys Healey (Newport County) header from the centre of the box is saved in the top centre of the goal.


A 30-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after the death of a man who was found outside a railway station.

Police were called to London Road in Leicester just before 00:40 GMT where they found a man injured.
He was taken to hospital where he was later pronounced dead.
It was initially thought he may have been involved in a collision with a vehicle, but police now say he may have been assaulted.
A post-mortem examination will take place to determine the exact cause of his death.
Part of London Road outside the city's railway station was closed for forensic examination but has now reopened.
Live updates and more from Leicestershire
Det Ch Supt Martin Smalley said: "We are currently in the process of reviewing CCTV footage from the area and carrying out many other enquiries locally in an attempt to establish exactly what happened prior to the victim being found in London Road, and to seek eye witnesses.
"The area where he was found is busy late at night and there may have been motorists and pedestrians in the vicinity around midnight who may have seen a man in or near to the road. I would urge them to contact us."
The victim has not yet been formally identified but it is believed he lived locally, police said.


Nearly 400 miles of roadworks have been removed ready for one of busiest days on the roads for motorists, Highways England has said.

A total of 148 schemes were lifted on Wednesday morning in an effort to free up motorways and A-roads.
However, motoring organisations warned that the next two days would still see heavy traffic on the roads.
Meanwhile, unions said rail passengers were enduring a "fortnight from hell" on Britain's "over-stretched" railways.
The Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union said travellers had already been hit with signal failures, staff shortages, overcrowding and congestion.
People travelling by rail this Christmas are advised to check for possible service disruptions with National Rail Enquiries.
Millions of people are also expected to travel by air, with major airports reporting increases on last year's festive passenger numbers, the Association of British Travel Agents said.
It said Wednesday, along with 30 December, would be a peak travel day.
Is your motorway clear? Check disruption with BBC Travel
Some 95% of the rail network will be running as normal this Christmas, but Network Rail uses the break to crack on with some of its biggest projects, because the trains are so much quieter than normal.
Last year, a catalogue of errors left 115,000 people stranded and angry. It came down to silly things. Equipment didn't work. Critical safety paperwork that should have taken a couple of hours took 10. The back-up plan was laughable.
Network Rail says it's done bigger jobs since then without a hitch, and months of planning will prevent any repeat of last year.
The company boss was on holiday in Cornwall when it all kicked off last Christmas. He's not going away this year.
Follow Richard on Twitter @BBCwestcott
Highways England said the removal of roadworks would leave 98% of the motorways and major roads clear for the Christmas period.
On the M5, a one-and-a-half mile stretch of works were to be cleared at Exeter and a further four-miles were to be taken away near Bristol.
Roadworks will stay lifted until midnight on Saturday, 2 January.
Christmas Eve is expected to be the busiest day for festive getaways by road, although the reduction in normal traffic could mean the roads are actually quieter than usual.
For the latest live travel advice motorists are encouraged to check the Highways England website.
14 million
cars will travel at least 20 miles on the last Friday before Christmas
400 miles of roadworks lifted by 23 December, but 43 sets stay in place
17.5 miles of work will not be lifted on the M3 near Farnborough
50mph speed limits will be in force on the M1 near Luton and Leicester and on the M25 near Aveley
5 miles of work on the M6 near Lancaster will also not be lifted
Highways England spokeswoman Melanie Clarke said: "This Christmas we're clearing roadworks across the majority of motorways and major A-roads in England to help people make important journeys to see family and friends.
"Where possible, we've completed or lifted roadworks, leaving more lanes open and lifting many of the associated speed restrictions to help people travelling over the festive period."
Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said: "It's impossible to improve roads without some element of engineering work, but I also know how frustrating they can be. We are determined to apply common sense to our roads so we can minimise disruption."
An AA poll of more than 29,000 motorists found that 40% would drive at least 20 miles on Wednesday, and 36% doing so on Thursday.
The RAC predicted that Christmas Eve would be the busiest day for traffic with 4.1 million journeys being made.
The RMT union said rail passengers had suffered two weeks of "hell".
On Wednesday, a fault with the signalling system near Chippenham caused disruption to Great Western journeys between Bristol Temple Meads and Swindon.
A temporary shortage of train crew has caused disruption to Southern services, with some trains altered or cancelled.
2.2 million
people are expected to use trains between Christmas and New Year
500 separate pieces of rail engineering work between Christmas and 3 January
20,000 workers will be on the railways when services are stopped or quieter than usual
95% of journeys will be unaffected, Network Rail has said
Heading onto the railways? Check BBC Travel for latest incidents


The leader of the Scottish Conservatives has defended Theresa May's qualities as a leader.

But Ruth Davidson conceded that Labour appear to be "creeping up" in opinion polls ahead of the general election.
She insisted the Tories were still polling higher than Tony Blair did in the Labour landslide of 1997.
Appearing on the BBC Scotland's Ask The Leader, Ms Davidson came under pressure from the audience on disability policy and the "rape clause".
Ms Davidson is the third Scottish party leader to appear on the programme in the week before the general election on 8 June.
She told the programme: "The biggest landslide in my political lifetime was Tony Blair in 1997 and he got 43% of the vote.
"The UK Conservative party is currently polling 45% of the vote which is even higher than the 1997 landslide."
But she added: "Jeremy Corbyn is creeping up. I think we've seen a fairly disastrous Lib Dem campaign, but polls quite often narrow before the vote."
Ms Davidson's appearance on the Ask The Leader programme came the day after the prime minister chose not to appear on the televised leaders' debate on Wednesday.
She denied Ms May was "crumbling" under pressure and said she was "absolutely not" a "wobbler".
Asked whether she thought Ms May was only good at sound bites and "weak and wobbly" when questioned, she said: "I think there's a question about what you want in a prime minister.
"If you want a reality TV star then look to America as that's what you've got in Donald Trump.
"But if you want a serious person of government, you've got one of the longest-serving home secretaries on record who's faced down terror threats in this country and has done again just in the last wee while."
There were a series of questions on Conservative policy on disability and cuts to benefits.
One audience member said that the "sentiment" towards the disabled since 2010 had been bad, with cuts in benefits not giving a message that the party "valued" disabled people.
But Ms Davidson said she wanted to enable people who wanted to work and remove any "barriers" they might face.
"My big message is I want to see the ability not the disability," she said.
"One of things we're trying to do is to make sure it's a more responsive benefit [Personal Independence Payment] that does help people and also it's about making sure that people have the help that they need.
"We don't want people to be left behind."
Ms Davidson was also questioned on the "rape clause", which is part of welfare changes that came into effect on 6 April.
The changes limit tax credits to the first two children in a family, with exceptions for adoptions, those involved in kinship care and for children born as a result of "non-consensual conception".
The Scottish Tory leader said the policy was "absolutely not" designed as a money saving technique and denied that asking women who had been raped to fill out the form would act as a "deterrent".
"They themselves don't have to fill out the form. That's why it's for other people to do it," she said.
"They don't have to bring forward evidence. They don't have to bring forward a crime report number. They don't have to bring forward any supporting convictions or anything like that.
"It's just about making sure that if they want extra financial support it's there for them."
She added: "If there's a way of doing it better then I want to hear it."


A man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder following a disturbance in Kent on Tuesday morning.

A man in his 30s was taken to hospital with injuries said not to be life threatening after the incident in Dartford.
Emergency services were called to Henderson Drive at about 08:20 GMT.
A 32-year-old man from Dartford was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and remains in police custody.
It was reported a man left the scene in a vehicle that was stopped near Taddington roundabout in Chatham about three hours later.


The US PGA Championship will be held in May instead of August from 2019, making The Open the final major of the season.

The US PGA will now be held a month after April's Masters, before June's US Open and July's Open Championship.
The Players Championship will also move from May to March, while the European Tour's BMW PGA Championship moves from May to September.
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said the changes would "greatly enhance the professional golf calendar".
One of the reasons the US PGA has been moved is to accommodate the Olympics, which will be held in Tokyo in 2020.
PGA of America chief executive officer Pete Bevacqua said: "It provides our PGA Championship a strong landing spot on the calendar and a consistent major-championship rhythm that golf fans can embrace.
"For nearly 85% of our membership, May is also on the front-end of the golf season."
Venues for the tournament have already been announced up to and including 2023.
The move has proven popular with many of the game's big names.
Jack Nicklaus, an 18-time major winner said it "should be a good thing for the game of golf", while 14-time major winner Tiger Woods tweeted his support, saying: " Really like and support decision by PGA and the Tour. A big event every month and flexibility with schedule."
BBC golf correspondent Iain Carter
It's all change in the golfing calendar.
There are implications that are going to ripple all over the place - one of them is that The Open is going to become the last major of the year.
It also means there's going to be more room for Olympic golf every four years in that August window and crucially, for the PGA Tour, there is the opportunity to wrap up their lucrative play-offs before the American sporting attention is totally diverted and overwhelmed by the start of the NFL season.
It does give a very easy-to-follow narrative to the golfing year because it will start in March with the Players Championship - regarded as the fifth major - then we will have the Masters in April, the PGA Championship in May, the US Open in June and the Open in July, and attention can switch to the play-offs on the PGA Tour.
When we get into September there's perhaps the opportunity to bring the Ryder Cup forward and for events like the BMW PGA Championship to have their moment as well.
But there's going to be a heck of a lot of haggling going on among the established tournaments and I do wonder how the World Golf Championships, which were supposed to be the tier below the majors, are going to fit in the golfing firmament.


The City of London police has started placing banner advertisements on websites believed to be offering pirated content illegally.

The messages, which will appear instead of paid-for ads, will ask users to close their web browsers.
The move comes as part of a continuing effort to stop piracy sites from earning money through advertising.
Police said the ads would make it harder for piracy site owners to make their pages look authentic.
"When adverts from well known brands appear on illegal websites, they lend them a look of legitimacy and inadvertently fool consumers into thinking the site is authentic," said Detective Chief Inspector Andy Fyfe from the City of London Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (Pipcu).
"This new initiative is another step forward for the unit in tackling IP crime and disrupting criminal profits.
"Copyright infringing websites are making huge sums of money though advert placement, therefore disrupting advertising on these sites is crucial and this is why it is an integral part of Operation Creative."
The initiative will make use of technology provided by Project Sunblock - a firm used by major brands to stop adverts appearing alongside questionable content such as pirated material or pornography.
Many websites - including those offering pirated content - will use syndication networks to place advertisements on their pages.
Brands use the syndication networks like a wholesaler, and so may not be clear what sites their advert will eventually appear on.
Project Sunblock detects the content of websites to prevent brands' ads appearing where they do not want them.
When a website on Pipcu's Infringing Websites List (IWL) tries to display an advert, Project Sunblock will instead serve the police warning.
Neither the police or Project Sunblock are paying the website in question to display the police message.
In the past, some have raised concerns about Pipcu's process in adding a website to the IWL.
Ernesto Van Der Sar is the editor of Torrentfreak, a news site that covers issues around online piracy. When Pipcu announced its intentions in March this year, Mr Van Der Sar said he worried about the implications.
"As with all blocklists there is a serious risk of overblocking," he said.
"Without proper oversight, perfectly legal sites may end up losing good advertising opportunities if they are wrongfully included."
The battle against online piracy has seen content creators attempt many different strategies in order to stem the flow of illegal downloading.
In the UK, the courts have ordered internet service providers to block almost 50 different websites offering pirated content, either by direct download or through peer-to-peer sharing.
While effective in lowering the traffic of these sites, filtering is a flawed prevention method - many internet users are adept in using different technologies to circumvent the court-imposed restrictions.
This latest attempt looks to hit the owners of these websites in a more painful way - by stopping advertising revenues from coming in.
Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC


A student has been killed in clashes between police and protesters at Khartoum University in Sudan.

Police said the student was one of two taken to hospital, but gave no further details.
Witnesses said police used tear gas and batons against around 200 students protesting against escalating violence in the Darfur region.
There has been an upsurge in violence in the region where rebels are fighting forces of President Omar al-Bashir.
Darfur has been wracked by conflict since 2003 when rebels took up arms.
A statement posted on the interior ministry's website on Tuesday did not say how the student had died.
Police "got information that two students were injured and taken to hospital. One of them died," the statement said.
An AFP news agency reporter at the scene said police fired tear gas and beat some of the protesters as they tried to take to the streets outside the university.
Students retaliated by throwing stones. Some chanted: "Peace, peace for Darfur - we want to bring the criminals to the ICC (International Criminal Court)."
Earlier on Tuesday, UN human rights chief Navi Pillay said peacekeepers and aid agencies had been blocked from entering affected areas of Darfur.
On Monday, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was deeply concerned about violence in Darfur and he urged all parties to stop hostilities.
The ICC has issued an arrest warrant for President Bashir, accusing him of committing war crimes and genocide against black African communities in Darfur.
He denies the charge.


The "wicked" aunt and grandmother of a seven-year-old girl who died of a brain injury have been jailed for cruelty.

Shanay Walker died at a house in Nottingham, in July 2014 while in the care of her aunt Kay-Ann Morris, 24.
Morris was cleared of murder but both she and Juanila Smikle, 53, were convicted of "about the worst case of child" cruelty.
Morris, of Beckhampton Road, and Smikle, of Easegill Court, were jailed for eight and four years respectively.
Sentencing the pair following a trial at Nottingham Crown Court, The Hon Mr Justice Macduff said they manipulated Shanay to lie for them, fooling professionals into thinking her injuries were accidental.
Addressing Morris, he said: "Your ill treatment of that little girl was frequent and wicked and lasted over the two years when she was in your care.
"You hit her, taunted her and you abused her in unimaginable ways."
He added he would be "loyal" to the verdict of not guilty of murder but said it was clear jurors could not be sure if Morris had caused the injury that resulted in her death.
"Maybe you were not responsible for the fatal head injury. But whatever its cause, I am wholly satisfied that you beat Shanay over and over, shortly before she died," he said.
A post-mortem report showed Shanay had more than 50 injuries to her body.
The trial heard she came into Morris's care after her mother Leanne Walker suffered post-natal depression after another pregnancy.
Morris, a paternal aunt, chose not to give evidence at the trial but had previously told police Shanay had fallen down stairs.
Mr Macduff said: "I consider this to be just about the worst case of child cruelty it is possible to imagine... This little girl wanted your love, your protection, and your support.
"Instead she was subjected to all of this in what was a most wicked betrayal of trust."
Morris was cleared of a cruelty charge towards another child.
Smikle was found guilty of cruelty to three other children, including forcing them to sit in water and ice for so long they could barely stand when allowed out.
She was cleared of another charge of cruelty towards a fifth child.
Speaking after the sentencing, Shanay's mother Leanne Walker said the family will forever miss her "cuddles, singing and dancing".
"My beautiful daughter Shanay was entrusted to the care of family members who I believed would love and look after her," Ms Walker said.
"Instead she was the victim of ongoing abuse and tragedy and her life was cut short before she could become the lovely woman I know she would have grown up into.
"Smikle and Morris have shown little remorse for their actions. It hurts and sickens me to know of the pain Shanay would have been in."


General Motors plans to unveil a self-driving car next year as it embarks on a major push into new technology.

Executives told an investor meeting that GM hoped to have a driverless Chevy Volt ready for next year's event.
Technology for the car will be developed through partnerships with companies such as Mobileye, the Israeli software specialist.
The move will be financed in part from a three-year cost-cutting plan covering manufacturing and administration.
The move is in part a reaction to competition from companies such as Tesla and Google, whose plans for autonomous vehicles are well advanced.
But GM said that its leadership in the automotive industry would give it an edge against some of competitors as everyone struggles to develop artificial intelligence that can anticipate drives decision and road conditions.
"No one has solved all the technologic challenges," said Mike Abelson, GM vice president for program management.
The company also announced plans to develop technology to make ride-sharing easier.
It has launched two limited pilot programs in New York and Frankfurt to test apps and methods for sharing cars.
GM hopes to launch a city-wide programme in the US in 2016, although the carmaker did not say which city.
There is a growing number of people who would rather pay a fee to use a vehicle rather than own one, a potential big revenue stream if the market continues to grow.
GM also addressed shareholder concerns around diesel cars, as the crisis surrounding Volkswagen raises the possibility that Europe will toughen regulations.
Executives said they were prepared to ensure diesel cars met even tougher emission standards and that they did not expect this to impact on costs.


A nurse serving a life sentence for murdering two patients in northern Germany is now a suspect in at least 84 other murder cases, police say.

The 40-year-old, named only as Niels H under German reporting rules, was convicted of attempted murder in 2006 and murder in 2015.
His victims received lethal drug doses at units where he worked.
Relatives of patients who died in clinics where he worked had urged police to investigate further.
A commission was set up in 2014 to investigate the scale of his crimes, which could make him Germany's worst post-war killer.
The medication caused heart failure or the collapse of patients' circulatory systems.
Judges said he was motivated by a desire to win approval by resuscitating the patients he had drugged.
During his 2015 trial, he admitted applying the drug to about 90 people at an intensive care clinic in the town of Delmenhorst.
Police say the abnormalities stretch back to 2000 at another clinic in Oldenburg.
They said staff had a meeting there in 2001 to discuss the strange levels of deaths and resuscitations, but did not report the levels to police, and Niels H was able to move to the Delmenhorst clinic.
A special police commission was set up in 2014 to investigate the case.
It has been analysing hundreds of medical records and exhumed 134 bodies to test samples for drug residue.
The investigations have been made more difficult because many patients were cremated.
"The findings continue to breach any imagination," said Oldenburg police chief Johann Kuhme. "It is simply not possible to say how many people were killed."
Mr Kuhme warned the number could still rise further. The new charges are now likely to be filed at the beginning of 2018, he said.


Australia captain Steve Smith "crossed the line" by breaking rules on getting help from his dressing room with the decision review system, India skipper Virat Kohli says.

Smith, 27, was caught looking up to his side's camp as he considered reviewing an LBW decision in Australia's second Test defeat in Bangalore.
"There is a line that you don't cross on a cricket field," said Kohli.
Smith admitted his actions, saying "I shouldn't have done that."
He added: "It was a bit of brain-fade on my behalf. I think it was the first time it's happened."
Smith was immediately waved off the field by umpire Nigel Llong as he looked to the Australia dressing room following a chat with non-striker Peter Handscomb, having been given out LBW for 28 to Umesh Yadav.
However, Kohli, 28, alleges he saw Australian players looking to the dressing room for DRS assistance on two other occasions while he was batting.
"When [Smith] turned back, the umpire knew what was going on exactly," he added.
"I pointed that out to the umpire as well that I had seen their players looking upstairs for confirmation.
"We observed that, we told the match referee and the umpire that it's been happening for the last three days and it has to stop.
"Sledging and playing on the opponents' mind is different. I don't want to mention the word, but it falls in that bracket. I would never do something like that on the cricket field."
Asked by an Australian reporter if "the word" was cheating, Kohli replied: "I am not saying that, you did."
Smith's actions were also condemned by former India batsmen Sunil Gavaskar and VVS Laxman.
"It was quite blatant and Peter Handscomb suggested to Smith and then Smith asked the guy at the dressing room," said Gavaskar.
"I don't think that was in the spirit of the game. We have to see what the ICC and match referee do."
Laxman tweeted: "Really disappointed with the way Steve Smith looked at the dressing room to take a review. Totally against the spirit of the game?"


The British satellite telecommunications company Inmarsat has now pretty much confirmed what the world had feared - that Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 was surely lost in the southern Indian Ocean, south-west of Australia.

The satellite operator was receiving hourly "pings" from equipment on board the plane for at least five hours after the aircraft left Malaysian airspace.
Initially, these pings - which were essentially just "I'm switched on" messages - were used to plot two broad arcs, indicating a possible position at last transmission, and therefore a direction of travel - one going to the north, the other heading south.
A northerly route for the plane always looked doubtful because it would have taken the aircraft towards countries with sophisticated air-defence systems.  The chances of it avoiding detection seemed slim.
But after reviewing all of its flight MH370 data, Inmarsat is now confident the southern arc contained the true course.
The company examined the frequency spectrum of the ping transmissions and how they differed from pings emitted by other Boeing 777 flights.
This allowed engineers to model how the frequency might change very slightly as a plane travels through the sky.
This is the famous Doppler effect, which acts to "stretch" or "compress" radio waves emanating from moving objects.  With a moving police car, the equivalent sound effect is to change the pitch of the siren.
The analysis is cutting-edge and has never been done before, but it has enabled Inmarsat's engineers to confirm that the southerly arc intersected the path taken by flight MH370.
The analysis tells us nothing about the final location of the ill-fated plane. It tells us nothing about any changes in altitude that the plane flew, other than it was airborne.
Neither does it tell us about its speed or its fuel capacity at the times of those pings. All this technique really does at the moment is tell us that the plane was moving one way rather than the other.
All that said, if certain assumptions are made about cruising speed, it is possible to narrow the likely zone of ocean over which the plane sent its seventh and last satellite connection. The UK's Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) has issued a map showing two different tracks - one for a constant speed of 450 knots; the other for 400 knots.
One has to remember that no-one knows how long the plane continued powered flight after the seventh ping, and it would likely have glided for a distance even after running out of fuel.
But the stomach-churning realisation that follows from the Inmarsat analysis is that the plane was moving far away from any landing possibility. The only conclusion can be that it did indeed eventually crash in the ocean.
Analysts will continue to probe the available data. Specifically, they are trying to understand the seventh ping - a partial connection - received just a few minutes after the sixth contact. What it means is uncertain.  Possible explanations include technical glitches, power surges - it's all speculation at the moment. What is a puzzle is that a normal ping would not have been expected for nearly an hour.
People have asked whether the Inmarsat analysis is reliable, and the Chinese have demanded to examine all of the data themselves. But the London company's work has been checked by other satellite industry experts. There's high confidence the conclusions are robust.
At least now search planes and ships know they are likely looking in the right "haystack", even if it is still a huge one.
But there is urgency. A lot of time has elapsed between the loss of the plane and confirmation that it surely fell into the southern Indian Ocean.
The priority is to get ships into the area to retrieve purported debris items, to help narrow the zone of the probable impact.
The flight recorders from flight MH370 will be close to that location, albeit about 3,500m down.
The batteries on these "black boxes" have perhaps a 30-day lifetime, meaning they will continue to ping their existence to searchers overhead for only a limited period.
When the batteries go flat, we move into a much more difficult phase - that of using remotely operated vehicles to actively look for the devices.
"The data on them should last for many years. We saw with Air France flight 447 that the black boxes were recovered two years after the fact, and the French were able to pull all the data off them," said Van Gurley from the Metron company, which took part in the search for flight 447.
"In this region of the Indian Ocean, the bottom is about two miles down. There are a number of technologies - sonar sleds and robotic vehicles - that can access that depth.
"The problem is the remoteness of the area because those robotic vehicles need a support ship and a support ship needs to occasionally go [into port] for fuel, water and food.
"So, given that the search area is 1,500 miles off Perth, just keeping ships on station for an extended period of time will be very challenging."
And Simon Boxall, an oceanographer at the University of Southampton, added: "We don't have very good maps of this region. It hasn't been surveyed much in the past.
"It doesn't have a strong interest in terms of the resources on the seabed. We've probably got better maps of the Moon's surface than this part of the seabed."


Plans are under way to pull together a host of music stars to create the fourth incarnation of the Band Aid charity single.

The men behind Do They Know It's Christmas are expected to announce the line-up on Monday for Band Aid 30.
Bob Geldof and Midge Ure first gathered a group of musicians together in 1984, raising Â£8m for famine relief in Ethiopia.
Do They Know It's Christmas was recorded again in 1989 and 2004.
Geldof and Ure will be hoping to gather some of today's most popular music acts including One Direction, Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith.
It is thought the money raised will go towards the fight against Ebola in West Africa.
The original track featured the voices of George Michael, Bono from U2, Duran Duran and Bananarama, among others.
The single was the catalyst for the cross-continent Live Aid concerts in London and Philadelphia, which raised more than Â£40m.
The 1989 incarnation of Band Aid was produced by the Stock, Aitken and Waterman stable, largely featuring their artists such as Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan and Sonia.
Band Aid 20, marking 20 years of the record, included the likes of Coldplay, Dizzee Rascal, Ms Dynamite, Will Young and Robbie Williams.
Bono, Sir Paul McCartney and George Michael from the original record returned for the collaboration, which was released to raise money for Sudan's troubled Darfur region.


A public hearing into fresh plans to demolish a former Aberdeen school and build more than 50 homes is being held.

Initial plans for the old Victoria Road School in Torry - which shut its doors in 2008 - were dropped in June.
Planning officials had recommended they be refused. More than 260 objections were lodged on the grounds of what was said would be the loss of granite heritage.
Developer Barratt Homes has now revised its plans.
The flats and three-bedroom homes would include granite into certain aspects of the properties.


A loner who lured a student who had shown him friendship to his death has been jailed for life.

Steven Davenport, 18, from Chelmsford, admitted murdering Ashley Woolley in the city's Oaklands Park last December.
Mr Woolley, also 18, died in hospital after being stabbed in the neck and body.
Davenport, who is understood to have had a fantasy about murdering somebody, was jailed for life at Chelmsford Crown Court and will serve at least 18 years.
Mr Woolley's father Trevor Woolley said he would have liked to see the death penalty for people like Davenport.
Mr Woolley told how he was wrapping up presents for his children when he learned Ashley had been murdered.
"Our world stopped at that point and it has never started since," he said.
"Ashley had befriended him because he was the loner of the class and Ashley, being Ashley, said 'come on, join the party'.
"We know that his killer had a fantasy about murdering someone and Ashley, being the only one in the class that had befriended him, well he then chose him as his victim.
"We went and saw the CCTV of it and you see Ashley coming out and he runs up behind him and stabs him.
"Ashley knew nothing about what was about to happen. He stabbed him in the neck and then, on the floor, and stabbed him in the kidney and liver.
"I am still trying to get through the loss of Ash. He loved life, he was cheeky, he was funny and if he saw somebody down he would tell a joke and try and make them laugh."
Mr Woolley said he would like to see a return of the death penalty for cases such as his son's, as Davenport had shown no remorse and because of the way in which his son was lured to his death.


For the past 20 years Teesside long jumper Chris Tomlinson has put his body through the rigours of elite athletic competition, harnessing every ligament, muscle and sinew in the quest for success.

Three consecutive Olympic Games appearances, a World Indoor silver medal, European Championship bronze and British records are the rewards - the achievements that justify the physical sacrifice.
But what happens when the success begins to dry up? The distances tumble, the crowds and venues decrease, while the body deteriorates and recreating the buzz becomes harder.
"I've jumped in front of 70,000 people, gone to Diamond League events in front of 50-60,000 people, it's the equivalent of being a Premier League footballer," Tomlinson, 34, told BBC Tees.
"You're going around the world - New York, Monaco, Rome - big stadiums and financial incentives and then suddenly you're struggling to make the cut.
"It's like going from the Premier League to the Third Division."
That decline in Middlesbrough native Tomlinson's performances was compounded by a bout of glandular fever from which his form has not fully recovered.
Ultimately, it led him to announce his retirement on Twitter on the eve of the British Championships in Birmingham, where he finished fifth and received a warm reception from the crowd.
"I can pinpoint it back to last July. I jumped just under eight metres with a very ragged technique and then I hurt my groin," Tomlinson said.
"A couple of weeks after that I got glandular fever and from that point onwards I haven't jumped more than 7.60m.
"I thought it could be the last one, and I spoke to [wife] Lucia and she said, 'If you're going down there to compete, go and enjoy it and let people know the situation you're actually in'.
"So many athletes just fizzle out. For almost 15 years I've been supported around the world.
"I'm an honest bloke and if this is the last time I'm on the runway then the people who have supported me wanted to be aware."
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The fine margins at elite level on the runway have gradually seen Tomlinson slide out of contention for major honours.
The injuries - knees, calves and groin to name but three - coupled with his increasing years and illness forced what was a heart-wrenching decision to call it a day before his standing in the sport was affected.
"Although my training has been good, I'm still strong in the gym and still do decent speed endurance," Tomlinson continued.
"I haven't actually been able to produce the same force off the take-off board, the same top-end speed. I've been trying and trying and trying.
"I'm 35 in September - it's probably down to a bit of old age dare I admit it. It happens to us all.
"I'm out there giving it 100% and the tape measure just isn't being pulled as far as it used to. If I'm so far off it, maybe this is the time to finish it and close a chapter even though it breaks my heart.
"I don't want to be remembered as an athlete who goes out and keeps on going and not performing."
While the feelings are still raw, Tomlinson admits he will look back on his career with mixed emotions.
"There are a lot of what ifs and regrets, but there's also a lot of satisfaction. I jumped 8.20m in nine separate seasons, which is quite a feat, but I only had a best of 8.35m.
"I had great consistency. I have medals from World Championships and Europeans but I never won a Worlds or Olympics."


Petrol bombs, stones and other missiles have been used to attack police vehicles and parked cars during hours of disorder in Belfast's Markets.

Two cars were destroyed after they were set on fire and other vehicles were damaged by stones and paint.
The trouble followed the removal of material gathered by republican youths for an anti-internment bonfire.
Officers in riot gear have since been deployed to the area and number of police Land Rovers remain at the scene.
Bonfires are traditionally lit in some republican areas to mark the anniversary of the introduction of interment - detention without trial - on 9 August 1971.
Supt Andrea McMullan said: "Police are dealing with some localised disorder in the Friendly Street area of the Markets, which has been caused by a small group of youths.
"We are working with local representatives and members of the community to address the situation.
"There has been some stone throwing, damage to parked cars and a number of petrol bombs have also been thrown."
One man, who told the BBC he had been parking in the area for about a year, said he found his car burned out when he finished work.
He said police could not tell him what happened, only that they had found the car burned out.
The man, who did not want to be identified, said he felt "frustrated" and would now have to buy a new car.
Local Sinn FÃ©in councillor Deirdre Hargey condemned the attacks as "nothing short of mindless vandalism".
"Both commuters and residents have been affected," she said.
"Cars have been smashed with stones and several have been set alight."
"Over the weekend there were a series of incidents of vandalism in the Market area.
"There is no defending this behaviour at all and it needs to stop now."
Alliance councillor Emmet McDonough Brown also condemned the attacks.
End of Twitter post  by @EmmetMcDB
Ms Hargey asked parents to take responsibility for their children and know where they were at all times.
"The community, both young and old, have been involved in a positive community festival over the last few days and those involved in this negative behaviour damage the good reputation of this community," she said.
In her statement, Supt McMullan said: "Local residents of the Markets do not want this kind of activity on their doorsteps and we would urge those engaged in violence and criminal damage to stop - and go home."


A Lancashire fracking site is to receive round-the-clock policing due to an increase in protests, according to the local force.

Neighbouring forces are currently helping Lancashire Constabulary at the site near Preston as campaigners stage a month of civil disobedience.
Drilling is expected to begin at the site by the end of August.
A force spokesman said extra officers would help "ensure the safety of protesters, staff and the public".
The site, run by energy firm Cuadrilla, has been the scene of daily demonstrations since January.
A force spokesman said the decision to move to 24-hour policing, which amounted to 50 to 80 officers every day, was due to increased protester activity over the last week.
Campaign group Reclaim The Power began a month of direct action protests at the site in Little Plumpton at the start of July.
Cuadrilla, which was granted permission to work at the site by Communities Secretary Sajid Javid in 2016, has said drilling is due to start in the summer with fracking a few months later.
It would mean for the first time, UK shale rock will be drilled horizontally, a process which has prompted environmental concerns.
In April, Lancashire Police and Crime Commissioner Clive Grunshaw said the monthly cost of policing the site was Â£450,000.
The Lancashire Constabulary spokesman said between January and June, the additional policing costs - which do not include "the cost of those officers that are assigned to policing the site on a day-to-day basis" - had been about Â£625,000.
Mr Grunshaw, who has previously written to Mr Javid about the cost of policing, said the protests have had a "huge impact" and it was "unfair" for people in Lancashire to shoulder the "drain" on the police budget.
He said officers from Cumbria, Merseyside and North Wales were supplementing the police presence at the site to deal with "professional protestors".
Mr Grunshaw also
Anti-fracking protester Tina Rothery, who has been demonstrating at the site entrance since January, said she was "stunned" at the decision to supply round-the-clock policing.
She said it was a "complete waste of money" and the "blame" for the cost "lies with both Cuadrilla and the government for its decision to overrule such strong local opposition to this industry".
A spokesman for the energy firm criticised the "reckless and in many cases illegal behaviour of a small number of professional activists" in stretching Lancashire's police force "to the limit".
"Cuadrilla is going about its law abiding business and unreservedly condemns the self-serving and selfish actions of these so-called protesters".
Reclaim the Power has held protests at other sites, including at PR Marriott Drilling in Chesterfield, due to its perceived links with Cuadrilla.
Anti-fracking campaigners said the drill to be used in Lancashire has been housed at the site, a claim that was neither confirmed nor denied by Cuadrilla for "commercial reasons".
The drill suffered "a large amount of criminal damage" in May, according to Derbyshire Police.