BBC News with David Legge

The American government commission looking into the causes of April's huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico says the three main companies involved all made serious mistakes in the run-up to the disaster. The commission's co-chairman William Reilly said the three firms - BP, Transocean and Halliburton - shared a culture of complacency rather than safety. It was the final day of hearings before the panel reports back in January. Paul Adams is in Washington.

William Reilly didn't mince his words; the three companies were, he said, in need of top-to-bottom reform. The accident in April had been caused by what he described as a "sweep of bad decisions", with the companies apparently rushing to complete the well. Meanwhile, the former BP chief executive Tony Hayward has told the BBC that his company was "unprepared" for the oil spill and had made up its response day by day. Mr Hayward, who stepped down as CEO in October, said he resented his treatment at the hands of a hostile US media and said he might have done a better public relations job if he'd studied acting, not geology.