The House of Lords has its defenders, despite being unelected and despite membership being for life. Its ranks include business leaders, scientists, medical professionals, civil servants, judges, military officers and others who might be put off running for elected office, but bring in a rich experience of life outside politics. They are not paid a salary, though they receive generous attendance allowances, so it is accepted that some will have paid outside employment.

A former Conservative minister with close links to the Government is sitting as a peer in the House of Lords while simultaneously lobbying on behalf of a Caribbean tax haven.

The search for a British man who went missing in the Cayman Islands more than two weeks ago has been called off.

More than 500 people have joined the search for a British man missing in the Cayman Islands. Nathan Clarke, originally from Cheltenham, was last seen a week ago on Grand Cayman.

Hundreds of Southern Cross care homes could be returned to companies registered overseas in tax havens where little information about their finances or their directors is publicly available.

Sir Terry Leahy would be the last man to suggest the Tesco show can't go on without him, but he does have a warning for his successor as he nears retirement.

A genetically modified mosquito carrying an artificial fragment of DNA designed to curb the insect's fertility has been released for the first time in south-east Asia as part of an ambitious attempt to combat deadly dengue fever that affects up to 100 million people worldwide.

Is nothing sacred? It was bad enough that back in 1997 Buckingham Palace decided to allow ITV to produce the Christmas broadcast of the Queen, breaking a monopoly that our national broadcaster had enjoyed since 1932 (for the past 13 years, the BBC and ITV have taken it in turns to make the programme). Now the Palace has decided to let Rupert Murdoch's Sky in on the act, too – it is going to produce the broadcast this year and next, and the task will then be alternated between the three broadcasters.

The former Swiss banker who claims to have given WikiLeaks the names of companies, politicians and celebrities guilty of persistent tax evasion was ordered to pay a nominal fine equivalent to £4,600 yesterday after he was convicted of coercion and breaking bank secrecy laws at a trial in Zurich.

A monumental legal battle over the liquidation of the business empire of alleged fraudster Sir Allen Stanford will come to a head in the Caribbean courts this month.

A decomissioned US Navy ship is scuttled in the Cayman Islands to attract tourists.

Age: 26

A private Swiss bank has agreed to pay up to $500m (£316m) to investors defrauded by Bernie Madoff.