Scottish Government ministers should set out more details about how much public money would be available to pay for the state pension if the country votes for independence, financial experts have said
Councils and other social landlords in Scotland face a rising tide of rent arrears as a consequence of the UK coalition’s ‘bedroom tax’, according to an expert report for the Scottish Parliament’s...
The National Health Service in Scotland will be reformed to provide genuine 24-hour, seven-day-a-week services, Health Secretary Alex Neil has told an international conference in Edinburgh
The health service in Scotland must tighten its long-term financial planning and change the way it delivers services if it is to cope with impending budget cuts, Audit Scotland said today.
The powers of Scotland’s local spending watchdog, the Accounts Commission, should be reviewed to take account of councils’ increasing use of arms-length external organisations (Aleos), the commission...
The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities has launched a council-led commission looking at how to localise public services and reform town hall funding in Scotland.
Funding for GP services has fallen by £400m in real terms over four years, the Royal College of GPs revealed today. It warned has left a ‘black hole’ in the finances of many practices
An independent Scotland could choose to postpone the next scheduled rise in the UK pension age, reflecting Scotland’s lower average life expectancy, the Scottish Government said in a paper published...
The government is yet to take control of the ‘absurd’ situation of the shortage of school places, a direct result of its mismanagement and ‘incoherent’ free schools programme the National Union of...
A newly independent Scotland could face a shortfall of close to £6bn in its public finances, thanks to a mixture of UK-led austerity measures and falling oil prices, according to a report today from...
Finance Secretary John Swinney promised to focus on mitigating the social effects of Westminster cuts and investing in Scottish economic growth over the next two years, as he presented his draft...
Leaders of the Scottish voluntary sector are to launch an inquiry into local authority arm’s-length external organisations (Aleos), following claims that their charitable status is draining money...
Scotland’s 32 local authorities have offered council workers a 1% pay rise for 2014/15 on top of the same increase given to staff in the current financial year.
Scottish ministers have agreed an outline plan that could see significant powers over resources and policy devolved to Scotland’s three island councils if voters back independence in next year’s...
Increasingly Right-wing policies from the UK coalition government and relentless scaremongering by the pro-union BetterTogether campaign could drive Scots to vote for independence in next year’s...
Universities in Scotland are poised to benefit financially in the coming year from a record influx of students from the rest of the UK, paying fees of up to £9,000 a year and from non-European...
The Scottish Futures Trust, set up by ministers to develop innovative approaches to funding capital projects, has recorded its fourth successive year of increased savings and other benefits to the...
The Scottish Government’s budget to 2017/18 will fall in both cash and real terms following this year’s UK Spending Review, the Centre for Public Policy for Regions has said
An independent Scotland would retain the household benefits cap introduced by the UK coalition, though possibly at a different level, First Minister Alex Salmond said this weekend.
Independence would allow Scotland to redesign its benefits system around its relatively older population, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
An independent Scotland would guarantee North Sea oil and gas producers a stable fiscal regime, free from Westminster-style ‘tax grabs’, First Minister Alex Salmond said today.
A majority of local authorities in Scotland say that an increase in rent arrears in council housing is a result of the government’s changes to the welfare system, including the so-called bedroom tax.
