AI tools are cheap, fast, and realistic. Voice cloning and face-swapping tools are now widely available.
International taskforce releases indicators to help businesses and professionals detect corruption. The Serious Fraud Office (SFO), working with law enforcement partners across the Five Eyes nations, has published guidance to help businesses, professionals and the public identify potential indicators of foreign bribery.
Family farms, which include 500 million smallholder farmers, produce most of the world's food, yet many remain in poverty, relying on traditional methods and lacking access to markets, finance, and technology. Supporting them to become commercially successful is critical to creating jobs, reducing poverty, and improving global food security.
Consultation on national vision for kinship care. Proposals to provide consistent and fair support for families caring for children unable to live with their parents have been published.
Remedies proposed to resolve concerns that Vandemoortele's deal to buy Delifrance could have led to higher costs for supermarkets and commercial foodservice customers. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is proposing to accept remedies offered following its investigation into Vandemoortele's deal to buy Delifrance.
Hundreds of thousands of people will benefit from an expansion of a trial to tackle poor housing and protect taxpayers' cash from rogue landlords. Around 400,000 households receiving housing support to be better protected from rogue landlords thanks to an expanded crackdown scheme.
The re-introduction of a short break service for children and young people in Inverness was welcomed by the Chair of Health, Social Care and Wellbeing Committee, Cllr David Fraser on a visit to The Orchard - a registered care home for children and young people. Cllr Fraser and Cllr Morven Reid, Depute Provost of Inverness and Area met with staff and children at The Orchard and were impressed with what they experienced.
The NDA group has delivered a UK-first nuclear milestone, marking a significant step toward permanently disposing of the nation's plutonium legacy. The UK's Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) group has delivered a UK-first nuclear safety milestone, by safely processing a can of plutonium residue into a stable waste form for the very first time.
HMRC provides a rundown of the HMRC app in 2025. Over 4.2 million HMRC app downloads in 2025.
Highland Council offers a stark illustration of the financial challenges facing Scottish local government, amplified by geography and demography. Covering a vast, sparsely populated area, Highland must deliver services across long distances with limited economies of scale.
Due to the UK Government delaying the budget so much this year it has pushed the Scottish budget setting process into January and consequently Scottish councils will also have much later dates probably February or March to set their own budgets. The Scottish Government's budget is shaped by a mix of UK government funding (the block grant) and tax revenues raised in Scotland (mainly income tax, some property taxes, and other devolved levers).
The push for wealth taxes has been one of the defining economic debates of 2025. The question now is whether we want policies that work.
Over the past decade, Scotland's local authorities have faced sustained financial pressure. While headline figures for council funding have often risen in cash terms, the real-terms picture — once inflation, wage growth and rising demand are taken into account — has been far more challenging.
Christmas is economically strange. We stop working.
Good Advice in this video for anyone doing side hustles or more..
The rental market in Scotland is undergoing a profound transformation. With the introduction of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025 and the legacy of rent caps introduced during the cost-of-living crisis, landlords now face a landscape where tenant protections and affordability are prioritized over landlord flexibility.
With the Scottish Parliament election scheduled for May 2026, opinion polls are beginning to give a clearer sense of the political landscape. They suggest a contest that is competitive, fragmented, and far less predictable than in previous elections.
Resident doctors in Scotland have voted overwhelmingly to go on strike in a dispute over pay. This marks the first national strike action by NHS workers in Scotland.
At first glance, the opinion polls ahead of the May 2026 Scottish Parliament election appear to tell a familiar story. The SNP remains the largest party, pro-independence parties collectively retain significant support, and Scotland continues to vote differently from the rest of the UK.
The Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) has today issued a stark warning to consumers ahead of the last shopping weekend this festive period to be on their guard against unsafe products that are entering the UK and could pose serious safety risks to shoppers. As Christmas approaches, the demand for products dramatically increases and the UK ports and borders are working incredibly hard to intercept non-compliant goods from entering into the UK, many of which would have ended up for sale on online marketplaces and then in the hands of consumers.