Sunny weather and football boosted retail sales in July

Sunny weather and the womens Euro football tournament helped to lift retail sales in July, according to the latest official figures.

Retail sales volumes rose by 0.6% in July, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which was higher than analysts forecasts.

The release of the figures had been delayed by two weeks over concerns about the quality of the data.

The ONS has come under fire recently over the reliability of some of its statistics.