Highland Council's Trading Standards team is reporting worrying findings from the age restricted product test purchase programme it carried out over the last six months. During the most recent exercise, premises in Skye, Easter Ross, Inverness, Badenoch and Strathspey were test purchased for cigarettes and vapes using volunteers under 18 years of age.
On 11 November 2024 the Caithness Area Committee will discuss several papers. Thurso and Northwest Caithness Ward Discretionary Budget applications approved 1 April 2024 - 30 September 2024 The Committee is asked to note that the following Thurso and Northwest Caithness Ward Discretionary Budget applications have been approved for the period 1 April 2024 to 30 September 2024:.
After she decided to terminate her first pregnancy due to Omphalocele, a condition where the baby's organs are outside of the body, she was worried about potentially having to travel more than two and a half hours to Inverness. Her partner is a crofter and as her due date fell in-between lambing season, she was worried about not having enough people around her in the far north.
Bounce Back Loan fraudster pays back money he fraudulently received in full. Sameer Saeed fraudulently secured a £50,000 Covid Bounce Back Loan in 2020 by exaggerating the turnover of his Digital Business Box Ltd business.
Winning projects use the latest innovations to help meet the unique transport needs of people who live in rural areas. eight projects awarded £150,000 each to better connect rural communities winning projects include digital tools that support patients and staff to travel to NHS hospitals funding will enhance travel for rural residents, while delivering greener transport technologies People living in rural areas could benefit from smoother and more frequent transport, thanks to government funding announced today (6 November 2025).
Leaders from over 375 institutions meet with the aim of creating new partnerships to increase scale of housebuilding and regeneration across England. Over 375 leaders from domestic and international institutional investors, developers, housebuilders, regeneration specialists, housing associations, and Combined and Local Authorities met in London yesterday (4 November) with the aim of creating new partnerships that will significantly increase the scale of housebuilding and urban regeneration that is needed across England.
Spending rashly to cheer ourselves up is nothing new but it's recently escalated among US millennials and Gen Zs. As negative political and economic news escalates on both sides of the Pond, doom spending is on the rise among Brits as well, says the home delivery expert Parcelhero.
New corporate criminal offence will hold large organisations to account if they profit from fraud. Today we've published guidance that will provide organisations with important advice on the new corporate criminal offence of ‘failure to prevent fraud', helping make sure they are taking action to prevent fraud.
A new report sets out the progress made to improve the educational experiences of children and young people with additional support needs (ASN) in schools across Scotland, with more than 40 actions completed thus far. Measures adopted since publication of the independent Morgan Review in 2020 include directly involving children, young people and their families in decisions around additional support for learning (ASL).
Culture Secretary outlines plans to modernise the UK media mergers regime. Proposal would extend powers to call in media mergers to online news sites and news magazines.
The Chief Statistician has released statistics on the reliefs and exemptions from non-domestic rates that were in place on 1 June 2024. These figures were produced by independent statistical staff, free from any political influence, in accordance with professional standards set out in the Code of Practice for Statistics.
A new plan to attract responsible private investment into natural capital markets has been launched for Scotland. Minister for Employment and Investment Tom Arthur launched Scotland's Natural Capital Market Framework as he spoke at the Nature Finance UK 2024 conference.
Legislation that will see Scotland move to using five year carbon budgets to set climate targets has been passed. The Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Bill amends the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 to introduce limits on the amount of greenhouse gases emitted in Scotland over a five-year period.
Consultants accept £124.9 million investment in 2024-25 pay. Consultants across Scotland have voted to accept a £124.9 million investment in their pay and reward package, ensuring their pay is competitive with other UK nations.
A reduction in police activity targeting the most common causes of fatal crashes has been identified as a key factor affecting Police Scotland's ability to keep people safe on the nation's roads. A new report by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland notes that since 2020 the total number of people killed or injured on Scotland’s roads has increased each year.
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority group have announced five organisations as winners of this year's supply chain awards. Morgan Sindall Infrastructure, The Decommissioning Delivery Partnership, PA Consulting, Antech and The Higher Activity Waste Thermal Treatment Tranche 1 Team are the big winners in this year's supply chain awards.
The winners of the Highlands and Islands Food & Drink Awards (HIFAD) 2024 were announced on Friday 1 November at a prestigious ceremony at the Kingsmills Hotel, Inverness. Supported by Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), the awards celebrate the talent, quality and diversity across food, drink and hospitality in the Highlands and Islands.
The Highland Council is developing a new Local Transport Strategy (LTS) for the next 10-year period. This Strategy will underpin the future direction and policy focus for transport in Highland.
World-leading reforms introduced to phase out smoking, protecting the public, NHS and economy and put us on track to a smokefree UK. Government will be given powers to extend indoor smoking ban to certain outdoor settings, focused on protecting children and the most vulnerable, in addition to creating the first smokefree generation.
The government is set to partner with Oxford Nanopore, which uses technology to rapidly diagnose a range of cancers, along with rare and infectious diseases. New partnership with cutting-edge life sciences company Oxford Nanopore will lead to better scientific research and could create tests and treatments for patients, saving lives.