News Archive

30/7/2020

Quarantine rules imposed on travellers from Luxembourg

Increase in coronavirus cases sees quarantine requirements.   Passengers from Luxembourg will be required to quarantine for 14 days on arrival in Scotland due to an increased number of cases of coronavirus (COVID-19).  

29/7/2020

 
Eat Out To Help Out - Look For The Logo - Up To £10 Off Every Meal Mon - Wed

Lots of Caithness Eating Places Have already signed up.   Diners who eat-in will benefit from a 50% discount, up to a maximum of £10 per person, on food and non-alcoholic drinks, any Monday to Wednesday in August.  

29/7/2020

 
Openreach Unveils Largest Ever Hard To Reach Full Fibre Build In Scotland

Hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses to benefit in 60 Scottish towns, villages and rural areas.   Openreach today 29 October 2020 outlined plans to make ultra-reliable and gigabit-capable Full Fibre broadband available to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses in 60 small and rural towns and villages across Scotland.  

29/7/2020

Right Care, Right Place In Scotland

NHS Pharmacy First Scotland offers expert help in the community.   People will be able to get healthcare advice and support to treat minor illnesses and common conditions in their local community following the launch of a new service.  

29/7/2020

 
Local Scottish Furlough Figures Show National Jobs Challenge

Governments should roll-out extra help in event of local lockdowns Employers in Highland, Perth and Kinross, Glasgow, South Ayrshire and Stirling council areas furloughed a larger share of workers than operators in other Scottish local authorities, according to HMRC statistics.  However, the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) in Scotland has highlighted that between 23 per cent and 34 per cent of eligible workers were furloughed across every Scottish council area.  

29/7/2020

200,000 Households In Scotland Have Invested In Their Property During Lockdown With A View To Selling

With the announcement that stamp duty is being paused on properties up to £500,000, many people in the UK may be looking to put in an offer on their dream property.  If you've been making improvements to your home to increase its sale value, you're not alone.  

29/7/2020

Further Funding For Tourism in Scotland

Two new funding packages worth £15 million will support the tourism sector as it continues to feel the impacts of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.   A £14 million Hotel Recovery Programme will help to secure up to 3,000 jobs at Scotland's larger hotels until the start of the summer 2021 tourism season.  

29/7/2020

Skin Creams Dried On Fabric Can Lead To Fire Deaths

A new campaign to raise awareness of the fire risk and the precautions that need to be taken by users of skin creams has been launched today.   Some skin creams, when dried on to fabric, can create a highly flammable combination that can cause serious injury and death, regulators warn today.  

29/7/2020

GDP Quarterly National Accounts for 2020 Quarter 1

Scotland's GDP is confirmed to have fallen by 2.5% during the first quarter of 2020, according to statistics announced today by the Chief Statistician.  The change in the latest quarter has not been revised from the first estimate published on 17 June 2020.  

28/7/2020

 
The Truth Will Out - Understanding Labour Market Statistics During The Coronavirus Crisis

Mike Brewer, Laura Gardiner and Karl Handscomb wrting for the Resolution Foundation.   Labour market statistics matter.  

28/7/2020

 
Coronavirus: How Countries Aim To Get The Vaccine First By Cutting Opaque Supply Deals

From the Conversation website - Author Duncan Matthews Professor of Intellectual Property Law, Queen Mary University of London.   The University of Oxford recently published promising news about the results from the phase one/two trials of the vaccine it is developing for COVID-19.  

28/7/2020

 
Men's And Women's Time Use Is Converging - But A New Income Divide Is Emerging

Gender differences in the amount of paid and unpaid work people do have shrunk over the past four decades, while the gap between low- and high-income households has grown to create a new ‘working time inequality', according to a major new report published today (Tuesday 28 July 2020) by the Resolution Foundation.   The time of our lives, supported by Trust for London, explores changes in people's time use over the past four decades, how these shifts differ by gender, geography and household income level, and where these trends may head in post-covid Britain.  

28/7/2020

 
The New £2bn Tax On The Frail Planned: Online Shoppers Must Not Be The Fall Guys Who Pay The Government's Covid Bill

The Chancellor is reportedly contemplating a new online sales tax to raise £2 billion a year to create a "sustainable and meaningful revenue source for the government".  The home delivery expert ParcelHero says Britain's increasing army of online shoppers must not be duped into paying the cost of Covid.  

28/7/2020

Lockdown Labour Market Deep Freeze Eases - But The Big Redundancies Test Is Yet To Come

The deep impact of lockdown restrictions eased slightly in May as some employees returned from furlough and self-employed workers increased their hours.  But the true scale of Britain's jobs crisis won't be known until the Government’s Job Retention Scheme is phased out in the months ahead, the Resolution Foundation said in response to the latest ONS labour market statistics.  

28/7/2020

UK Households Have Experienced The Biggest Immediate Income Shock Since The Mid-1970s

Policy response has massively boosted poorest households' incomes, but further shocks lie ahead.   The covid-induced crisis has caused typical working-age household incomes to fall 4.5 per cent between the pre-crisis period and May this year, despite the critical policy support that has cushioned the shock for millions of households, according to the Resolution Foundation's Living Standards Audit published on Tuesday 21st July 2020.  

28/7/2020

 
Covid-19: Emerging Fraud Risks

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought significant challenges across the Scottish public sector as bodies seek to deliver services for individuals, communities and businesses in an extremely difficult time.   The Covid-19 pandemic has brought significant challenges across the Scottish public sector.  

28/7/2020

 
Covid-19 Raises Risk Of Public-sector Fraud

Scotland's public finances have been boosted after a data-sharing exercise identified over £15 million of potential fraud and errors across the public sector.   But auditors have warned that the Covid-19 pandemic has brought additional fraud risks.  

28/7/2020

 
Household Consumption And Saving Across The UK - Some New Data

ONS have recently released some new experimental regional data which look at how households spend their money.  These data are still in development, so users are advised to use them with caution at this time.  

28/7/2020

Does the government know how to get value from consultants?

From The Institute for Government.   Government spending on consultants was rising again in the wake of Brexit, and its response to Covid has seen that trend accelerate.  

28/7/2020

Every Horse In Scotland To Be Microchipped By 2021

New equine identification regulations mean that it is now a legal requirement for all horses in England, Scotland and Wales to be microchipped as well as having a passport.  Until now horses born before 2009 weren't required to have microchips but these new regulations mean that any horses without microchips will need to be chipped.