£50 Billion Behind the Tax Argument: What Is Really at Stake in the North Sea
The offshore industry says 111 oil and gas projects representing £50 billion of potential private investment could move forward under a different tax and regulatory regime. The projects are not committed investment, and the figure comes from the industry pressing
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The Great Consolidation of Scotland’s Public Bodies: What Is Changing and Where the Power Is Going
Scotland’s public administration is entering a five-year reorganisation affecting health boards, environmental agencies, transport bodies, regulators, public records, corporate services and digital systems. Modern Scot maps the organisations that exist now, the changes the Scottish Government has actually announced, and what remains unknown about jobs, offices and where functions will eventually be carried out. The Scottish Government began September with a public-sector structure containing 14 territorial NHS boards, 32 councils, 31 health and social-care integration authorities and a national public-body directory extending across executive agencies, regulators, commissioners, public corporations, health organisations and other statutory bodies. On 1 September, First Minister
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NHS Scotland Awards New £100,000 Contract for Pelvic Mesh Removal
A new NHS Scotland contract will continue specialist pelvic mesh removal treatment for women living with complications from procedures that were halted in Scotland eight years ago. The £100,000 agreement maintains access to independent treatment alongside the national specialist service in Glasgow. NHS Scotland has awarded a new £100,000 contract for specialist pelvic mesh removal services, continuing treatment for women affected by complications from implants used for stress urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse. The contract award was published by Public Service Delivery Scotland on 15 September 2026. It covers clinically led assessment, treatment and mesh removal procedures for eligible
Westminster Set India Trade Terms as More Than Half of Scotland’s £3bn Trade Projection Flows From India to Scotland
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The Scottish Government presented India as a £3 billion opportunity for Scottish businesses. Its own central model tells a more complicated story. Technology and digital services make up £1.994 billion of the £3.20 billion scenario, and the methodology assumes 90 per cent of that trade runs from India into Scotland.
Scotland, Wales and Ireland’s Nationalist Movements Join Forces in Challenge to Westminster Rule
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SNP, Plaid Cymru and Sinn Féin sign Cardiff pact declaring ‘constitutional change is coming’ The leaders of the SNP, Plaid Cymru and Sinn Féin have signed an agreement in Cardiff asserting their nations’ right to determine their own futures and calling on the UK Government to prepare for constitutional change,
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Scotland Is Becoming a Giant Battery
At the end of March, Scotland had 22 operating battery-storage projects with a combined capacity of 843 megawatts. Behind them was something much larger: 426 electricity-storage projects somewhere in the planning pipeline,
Highland Councillors Were Asked on 9 September to Oppose a 173-Kilometre Power Line
Highland Council’s planning officers have recommended a formal objection to one of the largest electricity transmission projects proposed in northern Scotland: a 173-kilometre 400kV overhead line from Spittal in Caithness to Beauly,
Scotland Is Studying a Railway From Tweedbank to Carlisle. The Victorian Route It Would Follow Has Been Partly Dismantled for 57 Years.
A new public survey opened in September as Scottish Borders Council and WSP began developing the case for extending the Borders Railway through Hawick to Carlisle. Up to £10 million has been
Scotland’s Businesses Are Beginning to Worry More About Missing Customers Than Rising Costs
Falling demand has become the most commonly cited main concern among Scottish businesses for September 2026, narrowly ahead of energy prices. At the same time, the share of firms reporting rising turnover
A Grangemouth Factory Is Trying to Make Omega-3 Without Catching Fish
SEPA is considering a permit for a new industrial process at Earls Road in Grangemouth that would produce omega-3-rich material from microalgae grown using by-products from Scotland’s whisky industry. The company behind
The Famous Mr. Buchinger
In April 1723, a German artist named Matthias Buchinger was working in Edinburgh. He made drawings on vellum so intricate that some of their writing could barely be read without magnification. He
Rainbow City Taxis Pledges £30,000 as Aberdeen Arts Centre Fundraising Passes £279,000
Rainbow City Taxis has committed £30,000 over three years to the campaign to secure the future of Aberdeen Arts Centre, taking the amount raised by the £660,000 appeal beyond £279,000. The Aberdeen
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Three Hours Without My Phone Nearly Brought Down the Household
At six o’clock on Tuesday evening I put my mobile phone in the kitchen drawer. Mr Gunn put his in beside it. He did this without hesitation, which should have warned me that we were not approaching the evening from
Apparently, Backgammon is Fashionable Again
I discovered on Tuesday morning that backgammon is fashionable again. I was having my second cup of tea and reading about the things fashionable people are doing when I came across the news. Backgammon, it seems, has returned to drawing
