News Archive

Totalenergies And Scotwind Partners Commit To Local Industrial Development - Gains for Orkney and Caithness

TotalEnergies opens UK offshore wind hub in Aberdeen.   ScotWind partners announce £140m initiative for Scottish industry.  

Coronavirus (COVID-19): daily data for Scotland - 18 October 2021

2,194 new cases of COVID-19 reported.   20,113 new tests for COVID-19 that reported results 11.5% of these were positive.  

Highland Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund Opening Shortly For Applications

Highland Third Sector Interface are please to share that there is new funding available for third sector organisations in Highland to promote adult mental health and wellbeing.   The new Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund has been established with £15million allocated to support mental health and wellbeing in communities across Scotland, with £700K allocated to Highland.  

Summary Of Updates To International Travel, October 2021

Changes made to international travel rules during October 2021.   Statement by Grant Shapps MP As trailed in my Oral Statement on 20 September, as of the 4 October, we have.: replaced the traffic light system with a single red list and simplified travel measures for eligible arrivals from the rest of the world based on passengers' vaccination status removed the requirement for eligible fully vaccinated passengers to take a pre-departure test, providing that they are arriving into England from a non-red list country or territory and have not been to a red list country or territory in the last 10 days - the Devolved Administrations have also aligned on this policy.  

Audit Scotland Reports PPE Contracts Awarded Fairly

The Scottish public body that procured PPE during the pandemic acted fairly and appropriately when awarding contracts.   NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) used emergency procurement provisions to award PPE contracts without competition during the first wave of Covid-19.  

Involving Young People In COP26

Opportunities to meet world leaders and climate activists.   More children and young people will have the chance to get involved in COP26.  

Strength in Union: The Case for the United Kingdom

Love them or loathe them the unionists are still building their case to keep the UK as one.   A right wing conservative think tank recently published a series of essays.  

Increasing NHS Capacity

In response to the immediate pressures on the NHS because of COVID-19 and the backlog in care caused by the pandemic, military assistance has been requested for NHS Lanarkshire and NHS Borders.   Acute services in both health board areas are operating at capacity because of workforce shortages associated with the virus.  

Governance Must Improve At Crofting Commission After Significant Failings

The body responsible for overseeing Scotland's 20,000 crofts must improve its governance and rebuild damaged relationships between its board and managers.   There has been a breakdown in trust between the Crofting Commission's Board and its senior management team, including: the Board expressing a lack of confidence in the Commission's Chief Executive.  

Contactless Payment Limit Raised to £100 From Today

From today the contactless payment level is raised to £100 from £45.   Some retailers may take a few weeks to change their systems to accept the new limit.