Matthias Mueller says the sheer number of vehicle recalls poses a logistical challenge, but he insists that each owner of an affected vehicle will be contacted individually.

VW chief executive Matthias Mueller is now speaking at the news conference. He insists that robust solutions for all European vehicles affected have now been found. 

The recently discovered inexpensive solution of a "mesh" to deal with nitrogen dioxide emissions was not available at the time the affected EA 189 engine were produced, he said. 

Mr Mueller added: "We will not allow the crisis to paralyse us. Although the current situation is serious, this company will not be broken by it."

Volkswagen chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch said the company will start road testing all of its vehicles' emissions to avoid a repeat of the emissions scandal. 

"Our emissions testing will in future be verified by internal and external third parties and we are also introducing universal real life tests in on-road driving," he said. 

Mr Poetsch also said that the investigation into the German carmaker's emissions scandal would not spare top managers: "This is not only about direct but overall responsibility.'' 

VW still believes that a relatively small number of staff were actively involved in the manipulation of emissions, he added.   

Hans Dieter Pöetsch says that a "chain of errors" were allowed to happen, starting with the decision to launch a large-scale promotion of diesel vehicles in the United States in 2005. 

It proved impossible to ensure that the EA 189 engine met the stricter nitrogen oxide requirements in the US within the time frame and budget. "This led to the incorporation of software that adjusted nitrogen oxide emission levels according to whether vehicles were on the road or being tested."

Mr Poetsch said: “No business transaction justifies overstepping legal and ethical bounds.”

VW has already conducted 87 interviews and many more will follow. Mr Poetsch says.

More than 1,500 smartphone and laptops have been secured from 400 employees.

More than 2,000 group employees have been told that they must not lose any data, however Mr Poetsch stresses that not all of them are under suspicion. 

VW believes that only a comparatively small number of employees were actively involved in the manipulations.

"There was a lack of a concrete definition of responsibilities," said Mr Poetsch.

That meant there was a deficit in reporting and control systems, he said.

That included weaknesses in IT systems, some of which were inadequate, he added.

Hans Dieter Poetsch says that once VW's findings are watertight, the company may be commenting on individual people responsible for the emissions scandal. He admitted that the emissions scandal contains "factors that can best be contained, but not entirely eliminated in a group as big as VW."

Mr Poetsch says the company is looking for answers to the following questions:

Exactly what happened and when?

Were regulations broken?

To what extend did internal process encourage the situation?

Who is responsible?

How do we ensure that nothing like this happens again? - The most important question in Mr Poetsch's opinion.

Image source, bbc

Volkswagen executives have gathered for their press conference to give an update on the company's own investigation into the emissions scandal.

"Our most important task is to win back trust," says VW chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch.

Image source, Tui Group

The world's biggest travel firm, Tui, has given an optimistic outlook for its business, despite the terror attacks seen this year.

The owner of the Thomson and First Choice brands said it expected underlying profit growth of at least 10% in the current financial year.

Tui reported , externala 32% rise in net profit to €577.5m ($634.2m; £418.2m) for the year to the end of September.

Read more on the BBC Business site.

Paul Hollingsworth, UK economist at Capital Economics writes in a research note:

Image source, Office for National Statistics

The UK's trade deficit in goods and services widened to £4.1bn in October - in September it was £1.4bn.

The Office for National Statistics, external said that was due to an increase in imports and a decrease in the export of goods, particularly chemicals. 

Imports of machinery and transport equipment rose sharply in October.

The Financial Times reports, external that Britain's biggest buy-to-let landords are selling their entire property empire for £250m.

Fergus and Judith Wilson, both former maths teachers, are selling around 900 of their homes in Kent to a consortium of Arab investors, the report says.

They say they will make £170m, according to the FT.

Image source, Getty Images

Inditex, which owns Zara, Pull & Bear and Massimo Dutti, said that compared with the same period last year, profits rose 20%, external in the first nine months of 2015, to €2.2. The company also said that sales in the period also rose by 15% to €14.7bn. 

BBC Business Live

Image source, Getty Images

In a few hours VW is due to reveal the results of its own investigation into the emissions scandal.

George Galliers, an analyst from Evercore ISI, expects the company to say that it will cost around €30bn to fix the problem. Even after that VW would still have €24bn in cash reserves, according to Mr Galliers.

He says that despite the diesel emissions scandal, consumers are not backing away from the Volkswagen brand. 

Image source, Getty Images

The world's biggest furniture retailer, Ikea has announced, external a net profit for its financial year of €3.5bn ($3.86bn; £2.5bn). That's up 5.5% on the previous year.

Sales rose 11.2% for the year.

Most of the growth came from stores that are already open, but new stores and online sales "contributed substantially" to the result, Ikea said.

 Chief executive Peter Agnefjall said in a statement. 

The Swiss National Bank has decided to keep interest rates on hold at -0.75%. 

BBC Breakfast

On BBC Breakfast this morning, Steph McGovern has been reporting on the Bank of England's interest rates decision due at 12:00.

Rates have been at 0.5% since 2009 and the Bank is expected to keep them there.

Steph explains why below - but first, enjoy the spectacular view.

The FTSE 100 has opened a bit lower. It's down around 0.1% at 6,118 points.

Sports Direct is down more than 4% following its half-year results and an investigation by the Guardian newspaper in to its employment practices.

Centrica is up 2.9% after its trading update.

Glencore shares have jumped more than 8% after it raised its debt reduction target.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Image source, Getty Images

By using big data, tour managers are containing the black market for Adele tour tickets, says Chris Carey, chief executive of Media Insight Consulting.

He tells the Today programme that 18,000 known ticket touts were booted out of the pre-sale ticket registering process, so those tickets could go to real fans.

Big data (the analysis of large amounts of information) was used but Mr Carey is being tight-lipped about the exact methodology.