News Archive
29/7/2022
Energy Bills Support Scheme Explainer
Find out about the Energy Bills Support Scheme and how you can get support. What is the Energy Bills Support Scheme? Over the past year, global energy prices have soared, with wholesale gas prices alone quadrupling.29/7/2022
£400 Energy Bills Discount To Support Households This Winter
The UK government sets out further details of the Energy Bills Support Scheme. Households to start receiving £400 off their energy bills from October, with the discount made in 6 instalments to help families throughout the winter period.
29/7/2022
Transforming Heating In Homes - Zero Direct Emission Plans For All New Buildings
Proposals for all new buildings to be fitted with climate-friendly alternatives to fossil fuel heating systems have been published. The New Building Heat Standard (Part II) consultation sets out plans that would mean direct emissions heating systems (DEH), such as those run on fossil fuel, would no longer be installed in any homes and non-domestic buildings warranted from April 2024.29/7/2022
Vital Hub Announces Multi-year License Agreement With NHS Highland
NHS Highlands is a new customer at Vital Hub and has signed a multi-year license agreement to access our award-winning Synopsis Home and Synopsisi Q. With its award-winning overview platform, hospitals digitally manage their entire preoperative assessment, from initial surveys to postoperative results, remove paper trails, enhance data security, and a very clear economy.29/7/2022
NHS Highland Pilot Weekend Booking Service
NHS Highland are piloting an extension to their patient booking service in a bid to improve accessibility for patients. As part of their trial, NHS Highland are opening their booking services on Saturday between 08:00 and 12:00 for six weeks, from the 6th of August.28/7/2022
Boost For Recycling And Reuse
Local recycling and reuse services in three local authorities will be improved thanks to more than £3.4 million of investment from the Scottish Government's Recycling Improvement Fund. The projects in Aberdeen City, Perth and Kinross and Renfrewshire Council have the potential to reduce CO2 emissions by over 8,000 tonnes each year - the equivalent of taking more than 4,400 cars off the road – and brings the total investment announced to date to over £23 million.28/7/2022
Drugs Deaths Situation Remains ‘unacceptable' - 1330 Drug Deaths in 2021 in Scotland
While welcoming an end to seven annual increases in drugs deaths, Drugs Policy Minister Angela Constance made clear the situation remains "unacceptable", and work will continue at pace to address the emergency. The latest National Records of Scotland statistics show 1,330 people lost their lives in 2021 - a decrease of 1% and Ms Constance says it is clear there remains much work to do to save lives.28/7/2022
15 Million Households Have Received £150 Cost Of Living Council Tax Rebate
Nearly 80% of eligible households received the government's £150 council tax rebate in the first 3 months to help with the cost of living, figures published today show. A total of more than £2 billion has been handed to 15 million households in England under the scheme.
28/7/2022
16,000 Workplace Opportunities Secured Through Young Person's Guarantee
More than 16,000 young people across Scotland have been offered workplace opportunities through the Young Person's Guarantee. Over 600 employers have signed up to the initiative which aims to connect 16-24-year-olds with an apprenticeship, work experience, volunteering, internships, enterprise opportunities and mentoring.28/7/2022
New Custodial Unit For Women
A new community custodial unit is set to open which will change the way women in the justice system are supported in their reintegration back to communities. The Bella Centre in Dundee will deliver a marked departure in terms of the management of female offenders.28/7/2022
100,000 Ukrainians Welcomed To Safety In The UK
More than 100,000 people from Ukraine have arrived in the UK under the Ukraine Family Scheme and Homes for Ukraine Scheme. More than 100,000 people from Ukraine have arrived in the UK under the Ukraine Family Scheme and Homes for Ukraine Scheme Since March the government has worked with councils and communities to help them build new lives in the UK.
28/7/2022
Government Publishes Review Into Automation In Horticulture
Defra has (Wednesday 27 July) published the results of a review exploring how the horticulture sector can make use of innovative technologies such as packhouse automation. AI enabled robotics and autonomous guided vehicles to help with tasks like the picking, packing and transporting of fruit, vegetables and flowers.
28/7/2022
UK energy bills forecast to hit £3,850 as Russia cuts gas supply further
Apologies for pushing this once again but we all need to be prepared as best we can for a predicted tripling of energy prices in the Autumn. In September we will have a new prime minister and it remains to be seen what additional support will be forthcoming for the winter months.28/7/2022
Monthly GDP Estimates For May 2022
Scotland's onshore GDP increased by 0.6% in May, after the fall of 0.5% in April, according to statistics announced today by the Chief Statistician. Output is now 1.1% above the pre-pandemic level of February 2020.28/7/2022
Truss' Plans For EU Laws Follow A Pattern Of Attacks On Women's Economic Securit
Article from The Byline Times. 12 years of austerity, a lack of investment in care, and the rising cost of living have harmed women's economic security - now Truss' Brexit plans risk continuing that trend, argues Sian Norris.28/7/2022
The Uk's Wealth Gaps Have Grown To Over £1.2 Million
Soaring levels of wealth across the UK, coupled with high levels of wealth inequality, mean that the wealth gap between the top and middle tenth of households in the UK has grown to a record £1.2 million per adult, according to new Resolution Foundation analysis published 20 July 2022. Arrears Fears, the Foundation's third annual wealth audit of Britain - in partnership with the abrdn Financial Fairness Trust - examines the scale and consequences of Britain's recent wealth boom, which has created huge wealth gaps between people, places and age groups.28/7/2022
Sunak vs Truss: a battle between two failed economic policies
Emeritus Professor of Economics and Fellow of Merton College, University of Oxford. His blog is written for both economists and non-economists.28/7/2022
Fed Announces Another Three-quarter-point Increase In Interest Rates
With the US economy teetering on the edge of a recession and inflation running at a four-decade high, the Federal Reserve announced another three-quarter of a percentage point increase in its benchmark interest rates on Wednesday, the second such increase in just over a month. Read this item at The Guardian Still free to read but they do ask you to register or subscribe if you can to keep independent journalism going..28/7/2022
Rising Food And Petrol Prices Send Inflation Ever Closer To Double Digits
Rising food and fuel prices sent CPI inflation to a fresh 40-year high of 9.4 per cent in June, and to 10.6 per cent for the poorest households, the Resolution Foundation said in response to the latest ONS inflation data. The latest inflation rise was driven by the sharpest single month rise in petrol prices since at least 1989 and food price inflation, which hit a 13-year high 9.8 per cent.27/7/2022
