Modern Scot - 08/10/2026

Policy and Government  ·  8 October 2026

EU Regulators Examine Oracle Licensing as Scotland Builds More of Government Around the US Technology Giant

The European Commission is gathering information about Oracle’s software-licensing practices as European competition regulators consider whether there is evidence warranting a formal antitrust investigation. There is no formal case against Oracle at present and no finding that the company has…

Heritage and Arts  ·  8 October 2026

Scotland Is Spending Hundreds of Millions on Culture While its Endangered Crafts Are Fighting Over £43,000

Scotland is increasing public spending on culture, with hundreds of millions of pounds allocated to national collections, Creative Scotland, performing companies, buildings and major cultural institutions. Yet the national fund covering traditional craft alongside music, storytelling, dance, indigenous languages and…

Transport  ·  8 October 2026

Transport Scotland Has Promised to Reverse Biodiversity Loss While Building Some of Scotland’s Largest Road Schemes

Transport Scotland’s new Biodiversity Strategy commits the national transport agency to reducing ecosystem loss, increasing habitat connectivity and helping Scotland become nature-positive by 2030. The same organisation remains committed to completing A9 dualling and progressing the A96 towards full dualling…

Environment  ·  8 October 2026

Scotland’s Climate Plan Did Not Account for the Fossil-Fuel Emissions of Its New Data-Centre Boom

Scotland’s statutory Climate Change Plan was finalised in March with data centres identified as a potential clean-growth industry. Six months later, the Scottish Government acknowledged that fossil-fuel emissions from data centres had not been included in that plan. The admission…

Economy  ·  8 October 2026

South of Scotland Has a £31.8 Billion Investment Pipeline, Much of it Still Conditional

The Scottish Government and South of Scotland Enterprise have unveiled a £31.8 billion pipeline of 202 potential investments across Dumfries and Galloway and the Scottish Borders. The headline figure is large enough to transform the regional economy, but it is…

Economy  ·  8 October 2026

Scotland Planned to Shrink the Public Workforce – Instead It Grew, Leaving Deeper Reductions Ahead

The Scottish Government entered 2025–26 with a target to reduce Scotland’s devolved public-sector workforce by an average of 0.5 per cent a year through 2029–30. Instead, the workforce grew in the first year. New Scottish Fiscal Commission analysis says larger…

Highland  ·  8 October 2026

When the Commercial Bus Stops, the Council Inherits the Problem

Stagecoach will withdraw the X99 between Caithness and Inverness after 18 October, ending a direct link used by passengers travelling to Raigmore Hospital. The decision comes as Highland Council is already expanding its own bus operation to replace withdrawn commercial…

Energy  ·  8 October 2026

Rules Stop Scottish Communities From Selling the Energy They Generate Locally

Scotland is putting more public money into community-owned wind, solar and hydro, with £15 million now available annually through the Community and Renewable Energy Scheme. But for many grid-connected projects, generating electricity locally remains considerably easier than selling that electricity…

Environment  ·  5 October 2026

Bluetongue Zone Goes Nationwide in Scotland as H5N5 Returns to Lewis

Modern Scot reported in August that Scotland’s first bluetongue cluster was confined to four holdings near Newton Stewart. There are now 41 affected holdings, the whole country has been placed inside one restricted zone, and a separate H5N5 avian-influenza outbreak…

Infrastructure  ·  7 October 2026

The Global Investment Funds Behind Scotland’s Ports and Airports

Scotland’s largest commercial airports and some of its most important ports are controlled through international pension funds, infrastructure managers and private-capital groups. Recent transactions at Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen have made that ownership structure still more concentrated, while the state…

Energy  ·  7 October 2026

Scottish Data Centres Are Seeking 9.7GW of Grid Capacity While Ofgem Moves to Create a Demand Register

Scotland's electricity connection queue contains close to 30 data-centre projects seeking about 9.7GW of capacity, according to the National Energy System Operator. The figure is substantially larger than the data-centre pipeline visible through planning records, while Ofgem has now proposed…

Transport  ·  7 October 2026

Scotland’s Public EV Chargers Are Leaving ChargePlace Scotland and Eight Councils Prepare a 20-Year Private Concession

Hundreds of publicly owned electric-vehicle chargers across southern and central Scotland are preparing to leave ChargePlace Scotland and come under the operation of a single private company, as eight councils move towards awarding a concession that could last for 20…

Policy and Government  ·  7 October 2026

Scottish Government Moves From Hybrid Target to Mandatory Attendance with Staff Reporting Oracle Check-Ins

Scottish Government civil servants are being moved from a hybrid-working system in which office attendance was explicitly described as a target rather than a mandate to one in which attendance will be required and individually recorded. Staff were informed of…

Heritage and Arts  ·  7 October 2026

Why Scotland Still Has the Tattie Holidays Long After Children Left the Potato Fields

Scotland’s October school break survives in a calendar that has largely forgotten the work which helped shape it. For generations, tens of thousands of children left classrooms each autumn to lift potatoes by hand, sometimes for weeks at a time.…

Energy  ·  7 October 2026

Ministers Say They Cannot Require Compensation for Fishers Displaced by Energy Projects

The Scottish Government has confirmed that ministers do not currently have powers to require compensation payments in relation to energy infrastructure, leaving affected parties to negotiate privately with developers. The answer arrives as Holyrood prepares to debate calls for greater…

Policy and Government  ·  6 October 2026

Sexual-Crime Cases Reaching Scotland’s High Court Take a Median 2 Years 11 Months

Scotland has brought the overall criminal-court backlog below its pre-pandemic operating level, but cases involving the most serious offending are moving in the opposite direction. New evidence before Holyrood shows sexual-crime cases resulting in a High Court verdict took a…

Featured  ·  6 October 2026

Why Wings Over Scotland Is Taking the SNP Referendum-Fund Decision to the Court of Session

More than 1,000 people have funded a proposed judicial review of the authorities’ handling of nearly £667,000 raised through SNP independence appeals. The challenge is separate from Peter Murrell’s conviction for embezzling more than £400,000 from the party and turns…

Energy  ·  6 October 2026

Conservatives Plan to Override Holyrood on Nuclear Power, Targeting Powers Scotland Has Held Since 1999

Andrew Bowie says a future Conservative government would legislate so that new nuclear power “can and will” be built in Scotland despite Scottish Government opposition. The powers at the centre of the dispute are not a recent SNP creation: responsibility…

Economy  ·  6 October 2026

Scotland’s 2027–28 Budget Faces a £772 Million Reconciliation

A £772.4 million downward adjustment is now built into the provisional arithmetic for Scotland’s 2027–28 Budget. Most of it arises from Scottish Income Tax — not because tax receipts collapsed, but because the forecasts used when the 2024–25 Budget was…

Policy and Government  ·  5 October 2026

Scotland’s New Damp and Mould Law Starts on 6 October

From 6 October 2026, social and private landlords across much of Scotland’s rented housing sector must investigate reports of damp and mould within fixed statutory timescales, issue written findings and begin necessary repairs quickly. Cases reported before that date do…

Policy and Government  ·  5 October 2026

NHS Scotland Orders New Disclosure System for Staff Interests

A new national system requiring NHS Scotland staff to declare outside employment, business interests, private clinical work, research relationships, sponsorship, gifts, hospitality and potentially conflicting relationships has been set out by the Scottish Government, but the guidance also reveals that…

Tea With Gunns  ·  8 October 2026

Clutter is Just Something You Haven’t Lived Long Enough to Need Yet

I have been reading Good Housekeeping magazine, which is always dangerous because it leaves me with the impression that somewhere in Scotland there is a woman whose pantry contains matching jars, whose towels are all the same colour and whose…