The Highland Council are delighted to be part of the official opening JAM event of the trailblazing Fort William Bike Track to be held on Wednesday 2 August 2023 from 2pm. The track opens just ahead of the UCI Cycling World Championships riding into town from 3-5 August for the Downhill Mountain Biking World Championships at Nevis Range, Fort William.
Corporate insolvency numbers (liquidations and receiverships) in Scotland for Q1 2023-2024 increased by 19.7% compared with Q1 2022-2023, to a total of 292. Corporate insolvency numbers in Scotland also increased by 21.7% when compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019.
The Resolution foundation looks at the Kickstart scheme. Three years on from the advent of the Kickstart scheme - the Government's employment programme which created jobs for young people aged 16-24 during the Covid-19 pandemic - the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has published a process evaluation report looking at the effectiveness of the scheme.
More working-age people are self-reporting long-term health conditions, with 36% saying that they had at least one long-term health condition in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2023, up from 31% in the same period in 2019 and 29% in 2016. The number of people economically inactive because of long-term sickness has risen to over 2.5 million people, an increase of over 400,000 since the start of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The Highland Council's Environmental Health team are advising caution as blue-green algae has been found in Loch Watten in Caithness. During this current period of prolonged warm weather, the chance of Blue Green algae (cyanobacteria) affecting water courses, particularly ponds, lochs and canals (as well as rivers), increases significantly.
The European Central Bank on Thursday announced a new rate increase of a quarter percentage point, bringing its main rate to 3.75% 0n 2 august 2023 The latest move completes a full year of consecutive rate hikes in the euro zone, after the ECB embarked on its journey to tackle high inflation last July. "Inflation continues to decline but is still expected to remain too high for too long," the ECB said Thursday in a statement.
Scotland's onshore GDP fell by 0.2% in May, according to statistics announced today by the Chief Statistician. This follows an unrevised fall of 0.5% in April and a revised fall of 0.3% in March.
Inward foreign direct investment (FDI) positions and earnings presented by the economy of the ultimate controlling parent up to 2021. Companies in the North Americas ultimately controlled £868.9 billion (or 43.4%) of the UK's total inward foreign direct investment (FDI) stock in 2021; this was £150.8 billion higher than the immediate position.
George Monbiot writing in the Guardian explains this novel approach to breaking the mould of UK elections and achieve a much fairer representation for everyone. By uniting behind one progressive parliamentary candidate, voters in the south Devon seat are hoping to effect change here and beyond.
An Order was granted by Tain Sheriff Court which places legal requirements and restrictions on local nicotine vape seller, Mohammad Shuaab Director trading as, J&M Patterson Ltd, 33-35 High Street, Alness. Highland Council Trading Standards executed a warrant on Shuaab in April 2022.
Smaller firms face tougher business conditions against the backdrop of ongoing cost pressures. The news that inflation eased slightly in June 2023 looks to be a welcome turning point in the UK's recent inflation story and signals that the Bank of England’s efforts on interest rates are starting to feed through to the economy.
The current National Minimum Wage hourly rates from 1 April 2023 are: Age 23 or over (National Living Wage): £10.42 Age 21 to 22: £10.18 Age 18 to 20: £7.49 Age under 18: £5.28 Apprentice: £5.28 By law workers must be paid at least the minimum wage for their age for all their time spent working. If somebody thinks they may have been underpaid, they can report this online to HMRC at: https://www.gov.uk/minimum-wage-complaint or contact the ACAS Helpline on 0300 123 1100 for confidential, free advice..
New intensive care model for the highest risk pre-term babies. Three specialist intensive care neonatal units for babies born at highest risk will be based in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Following extensive engagement with industry, and in light of the pressure facing consumers and businesses in the current economic context, new rules to ensure packaging producers pay for the cost of recycling their packaging will be deferred a year from October 2024 to 2025. Government will use the additional year to continue to discuss the scheme's design with industry and reduce the costs of implementation wherever possible.
Islanders facing high fuel, food and energy costs are to receive an additional £1 million in support to help meet cost of living pressures. The new funding will be delivered through the Islands Cost Crisis Emergency Fund to help mitigate against some of the unique cost of living challenges faced by people living on Scotland's islands.
Netflix's recent move to crack down on password sharing has boosted subscriber numbers by nearly 6 million in the last three months, for a total of 238 million subscribers globally. Netflix announced plans to limit sharing earlier this year after experiencing its first subscriber loss in a decade in 2022.
The pension market in the UK has expanded to become the largest in Europe, worth over £2.5 trillion in 2021. Successive British governments have encouraged this growth, especially through the auto-enrolment scheme which made workplace pension contributions compulsory.
Elon Musk has axed Twitter's famous blue bird logo, replacing it with an ‘X’. ParcelHero says it’s the latest move in Musk’s plan to transform Twitter-X into a super-app offering global shopping, shipping and payment services.
Almost 172,000 tax credits customers have until 31 July to renew their annual claim and HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is urging them to not miss out. Customers who received a renewal pack with a red line across the first page and the words ‘reply now' must respond to HMRC or risk having their payments stopped.
Former Wick High pupil Alan Renwick Chaired A Discussion on the topic (See video link). With a general election due before the end of next year and numerous other elections set for the next 12 months, concerns have been raised about the ability to recruit enough temporary poll workers to staff polling stations, check voter ID and count the votes cast.
