Sunny weather and football boosted retail sales in July

ONS delays release of sales data over quality concerns

'Dismal' month for supermarkets pushes down retail sales

Retail sales volumes rose

The release of the figures had been delayed

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 was partially offset

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