Sunny weather and football boosted retail sales in July

Sunny weather and the women's 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.

While sales volumes in July rose, sales in the three months to July were down 0.6% when compared with the previous three months.

"Supermarkets, sports shops and household goods stores had a strong start to the year, but spending there has fallen since March," said the ONS's director general of economic statistics, James Benford

However, he added this partially offset by strong sales online and at clothing and footwear stores.

Mr Benford apologised for errors in past data, and said the ONS had "improvement plans" in place.