The question of why no tax applies to aviation fuels similar to Fuels for land based transport still hangs around. The problem has been looked at on several occasions.
Following months of delays Scottish Government have finally made an offer on NHS pay for staff within the Agenda for Change pay scales. The offer is a straightforward 5.5% increase on pay.
Creative Scotland has taken the difficult decision to close the Open Fund for Individuals to new applications due to the Scottish Government being unable to confirm release of £6.6m in Grant-in-Aid budget in the current financial year, 2024-25. The Fund will close to new applications from 2pm on Friday 30th August 2024.
Ten projects have been awarded £2.5 million as part of the UK Space Agency's Unlocking Space for Business programme. The pilot projects, which have been awarded grants of up to £400,000 each, will trial new solutions that use satellite data and services to support transport, logistics and financial services.
Chancellor insists she still has large black hole to fill despite stronger-than-expected growth in first half of 2024. Rachel Reeves is planning to raise taxes, cut spending and get tough on benefits in October's budget amid Treasury alarm that the pickup in the economy has failed to improve the poor state of the public finances.
The number of transactions at Pret A Manger stores decreased in 7 of the 10 location categories monitored in the week to 8 August 2024; the largest decrease was seen in Manchester stores, falling by 9% when compared with the previous week (Pret A Manger). Section 3: Consumer behaviour.
More than 1 in 5 (23%) trading businesses reported that their turnover had decreased in July 2024 compared with June 2024, 16% reported an increase, while 53% reported no change; these figures are all broadly stable from last month. Approximately 1 in 6 (17%) trading businesses expect their turnover to increase in September 2024, with 58% expecting turnover to stay the same, up 3 and 2 percentage points, respectively, on expectations for August 2024; while 13% expect turnover to fall, down 3 percentage points over the same period.
From 11 March 2024, social care workers arriving from overseas are no longer allowed to bring dependants (that is, partners and children) on their visa. From 4 April 2024, the baseline general salary to be sponsored for a ‘Skilled Worker' visa increased from £26,200 to £38,700, while the ‘going rate' minimum salary specific to each job has also gone up significantly.
Strict new controls suspending personal imports of certain sheep and goat commodities, such as meat, cheese and milk products, have been announced on 21 August 2024. Strict new controls suspending personal imports of certain sheep and goat commodities, such as meat, cheese and milk products, have been announced today (21 August) to safeguard Britain's sheep and goat populations from outbreaks of peste des petits ruminants (PPR).
Figure 1 shows that monthly numbers of Health and Care Worker visa applications from main applicants increased from 4,100 to 18,300 between February 2022 and August 2023, following the addition of care workers to the skilled worker visa. Applications have decreased since August 2023, falling to 2,900 in July 2024.
Labour Force Survey (LFS) estimates have been weighted to population estimates published in November 2023 for periods from July to September 2022; a discontinuity has been introduced at this point, so comparisons before this point are not possible. Increased volatility of LFS estimates, resulting from smaller achieved sample sizes, means that estimates of quarterly change should be treated with additional caution.
The UK Health Security Agency is encouraging students to make the healthiest start to their studies possible. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is reminding all higher education and university students - freshers and returning students – to make sure they are up to date with their free NHS childhood and adolescent vaccines against meningitis, measles and HPV ahead of starting the new academic year.
Lecanemab is the first treatment for Alzheimer's disease licensed for use in Great Britain that shows some evidence of efficacy in slowing progression of the disease. As for any new medicine, this decision was made with expert scientific advice on the benefit risk of lecanemab from the Commission on Human Medicines (CHM), the government's independent advisory body.
4G programme brings benefits to thousands of rural homes and businesses. A Scottish Government programme to install 55 4G mobile phone masts in rural and island communities has improved home life, work life and business performance, according to new analysis.
A total of £1.5 million funding in 2024-25 is supporting 12 projects to continue providing direct and personalised support to patients with cancer. The Single Point of Contact (SPoC) pilots provide patients with ongoing contact to support them, putting them at the heart of all decisions and actions involving them throughout their care journey.
People across Scotland are being asked to have their say on a minimum charge for single-use cups to promote responsible consumption and cut waste. The Scottish Government is consulting on the possible introduction of a 25p charge to all single-use drinks cups when a drink is bought, regardless of material.
Scottish benefit for carers now available in seven more council areas. Thousands more unpaid carers in Scotland can apply for a new benefit.
Up to 880,000 households across the UK may be missing out on support worth on average over £3,900 a year. Read more about claiming for yourself or a loved one.
A new test facility, one of the largest in Europe, will help military kit to be better protected from attempts to jam GPS devices. The facility will provide a key capability to develop UK assets that can perform in the harshest electromagnetic environments on operations.
There were 792 probable suicide deaths in 2023, an increase of 30 on the previous year, according to figures published today by National Records of Scotland. Male suicides increased by 34 to 590, while female suicides decreased by 4 to 202 deaths in the latest year.
