Around 1,000 surfers will swap their boards for rubber gloves and bags this weekend for their biggest ever clean-up of plastic packaging, drinks tins and other debris on beaches.

Richard Garner visits Essa Academy in Bolton – the cutting edge of an education revolution

GlaxoSmithKline, Britain's biggest drug maker, yesterday set out plans for a joint venture with Tokyo-based Daiichi Sankyo that will make it the largest vaccines company in Japan.

While some FTSE 100 companies have already beaten the target to have one in four female directors by 2015, overall change at the top is still slow

Almost 100 females were made directors of top UK businesses last year. It's not equality – but it's definitely progress. Lucy Tobin reports

The Analyst

Some creaky joints at Smith & Nephew?

You could say that. Olivier Bohuon was only appointed as chief executive in February after the surprise departure of the much-respected David Illingworth.

Reckitt Benckiser, owner of Durex and Nurofen, kicks off a busy week in the City tomorrow, with interim results also due from FTSE 100 giants BP and GlaxoSmithKline.

GlaxoSmithKline has signed a deal with the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) to help scientists develop early detection methods for drugs that have performance-enhancing potential in sport.