Fuel, fishing, finance: powerful interests dominate Scotland Office meetings
Big business including oil and renewable energy, farming, fishing, finance and whisky dominated Scotland Office ministers’ meetings last year, analysis by The Ferret has found.
Lobbying loophole: How big business influences Scottish ministers without scrutiny
Hundreds of meetings between Scottish ministers and multinationals, wealthy individuals and other influential organisations were left off the lobbying register in 2020 due to loopholes in legislation.
Rise in prison deaths raises questions about access to health care
A “small but sharp” rise in deaths in prisons should prompt serious questions about the impact of pandemic restrictions of those in jail, according to campaigners.
Emails reveal Scottish ministers snubbed by Priti Patel over immigration raid
A series of urgent emails from the heart of the Scottish Government on the day of a Home Office immigration raid in Glasgow’s Pollokshields have laid bare growing tensions between the two administrations.
Poverty tsar calls for Home Office accountability over asylum support crisis
The chair of Scotland’s poverty and inequality commission has called for the Home Office to be held to account for leaving aslylum seekers without food or money.
Delayed discharges from mental health wards of more than three years recorded
Hundreds are facing discharge delay from mental health wards despite being well enough to be discharged - in the most extreme cases for more than three years.
Concerns raised over ‘lethal’ risk of Ineos pipe on proposed quarry site
Campaigners in the Scottish Borders are raising growing concerns about a proposal for quarry which has an Ineos ethylene gas pipeline running through it.
Children’s commissioner calls for ‘urgent review’ of asylum mother and baby unit
Scotland’s Children and Young People’s Commissioner has written to the Home Office's accommodation provider, calling for an “urgent review" of a Glasgow mother and baby unit for asylum seekers.
Assessment system for ‘exams in disguise’ has ‘lost credibility’ and ‘destroyed trust’
Those raising concerns about the assessment of what have been branded "exams in disguise" include the principal of George Watson’s College one of the country’s most prestigious private schools.
