Highland Council's Trading Standards Team is appealing for help from reputable businesses and the public in the battle to tackle illegal sales of vaping products. The team is very active tackling the problem and is grateful for the support already received from the community.
The Highland Council can confirm that on Monday 4 September the process for the 2023 Community Council elections will begin. From this date nominations will be invited from people seeking election to all Community Councils across Highland.
Disney has just ditched DVDs and binned Blu-rays across an entire continent. The home delivery expert ParcelHero asks if we are looking at the death of the disc or if there will be a fight for physical media.
More than 3.5 million customers travelled on ScotRail services in the last two weeks, with the 2023 UCI World Cycling Championships helping to deliver the busiest period since before the pandemic. Another 469,000 customers travelled over the weekend, meaning just short of one million journeys were made in the last two weekends alone.
The UK has seen more strikes in the past year than in any since the 1980s. These strikes have been concentrated in the public and transport sectors, where unionisation rates are highest.
3.9 million working days have been lost to industrial action in the past year - more days than at any point since the 1980s - with many of the strikes fuelled by the fact that highly-unionised public sector workers have experienced average real terms pay falls of over 9 per cent since 2021, the Resolution Foundation said in new analysis published today (Monday). The Foundation's quarterly Labour Market Outlook examines the drivers behind the ongoing strikes and high vacancy rates in the public sector.
Early estimates for July 2023 indicate that the number of payrolled employees rose by 1.9% (578,000 employees) compared with July 2022; the number of payrolled employees rose by 4.2% (1,211,000 employees) since February 2020. Payrolled employment increased by 97,000 employees (0.3%) in July 2023 when compared with June 2023; this should be treated as a provisional estimate and is likely to be revised when more data are received next month.
Munro Vehicles (Munro), a manufacturer of all-electric 4x4s, and Scotland's only volume production car company today welcomed MSP Graham Simpson to its headquarters to see the first vehicles entering production. Muro welcomed 61 investors, deposit holders and fans through its doors during an open day.
At Full Council on 2 March 2023, the Council agreed to provide £1.266m of funding for a temporary Rapid Road Repair Team in 2023/24. This was to provide centrally managed, strategic support to enable road repairs in targeted areas across the Highlands.
British businesses will be able to access new advice and support to reduce their energy bills and cut their carbon emissions from the UK Business Climate Hub. Business website offers new help for Britain's 5.5 million SMEs to save on their energy bills while reducing their emissions.
A publicly-owned energy company, if delivered at the right scale, could return £140bn for the public purse, making Britain richer and speeding up the path to net zero. State-owned energy companies across Europe are lowering household bills and delivering good jobs while UK workers and their families are missing out.
The Employment Rights Bill (Flexible Working) reached royal assent - that means the law on flexible working is changing. Whilst the law itself won't change until Spring 2024, employers need to be prepared.
Proposals to introduce electronic tracking and monitoring technology for small fishing vessels will be consulted on as part of package of new fisheries measures announced today. The consultation proposes that vessel tracking devices will be required by Scottish commercial fishing vessels under 12 metres in length wherever they operate, and by all vessels of the that size when they operate in Scottish waters.
Law changes will be quashed as of 10 August 2023, after High Court ruled they were unlawful. The TUC has called on ministers to make a "clear commitment" they will not overturn the renewed ban on agency workers replacing those on strike.
Government seeks views on adding pack inserts to tobacco products to encourage smokers to quit. Pack inserts are used internationally including in Canada and Israel, and proven to encourage people to give up smoking.
Still enduring the longest pay crisis for two centuries, workers now face the steepest inflation for 40 years. But rather than acting to reduce the impacts of these pressures on people's living standards, the government has been quick to suggest pay needs to be further restrained, and even to blame working people for interest rate rises.
Scotland seems to be getting deeper in the mire from anything to do with gender. At a time of huge cost of living stresses should our politicians be spending so much time on how we spend a penny.
This latest offer from The UK Health secretary looks like thinly veiled political point to try and embarrass the Scottish and Welsh administrations. The NHS has always co-operated across the UK for many things.
The Department for Education (DfE) has confirmed that the maximum Plan 2, Plan 5 and the Postgraduate loan interest rate will be 7.3% between 1 September 2023 and 30 November 2023. Since September 2022 maximum student loan interest rates have been capped in line with the latest prevailing market rate available at the time of setting the cap.
How have employment, earnings and incomes performed in Scotland compared with the rest of the UK? What drives geographic inequalities within Scotland? While employment and earnings in Scotland grew substantially faster than in the rest of the UK (rUK) during the 2000s, since 2014 Scotland has seen slower growth. In 2014 the employment rate in Scotland was 1 percentage point higher than in rUK (74.0% versus 73.0%), but by 2021 it was around 1 percentage point lower (74.7% versus 75.5%).
