Scottish Government

Circular Economy Minister Lorna Slater. Image: Jane Barlow/Press Association.

Lorna Slater told to 'go back to the drawing board' on recycling bill

The scheme give councils discretion so they can help as many people and businesses as possible.

Applications invited for Storm Babet support funding

The Scottish Government aims to ensure 95 per cent of patients presenting at an A&E department are seen within four hours, but currently just 63.2 per cent are seen within that timeframe.

Could one Scottish health board hold the key to fixing the NHS's A&E crisis?

Health Secretary Michael Matheson turned down an offer from the UK Government to help cut Scottish NHS waiting lists (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Readers' Letters: Sickening response to UK's offer to help Scottish patients

Party politics is getting in way of tackling housing emergency Barrie Cunning

Glasgow high school pupils sitting exam. Image: John Devlin

SNP warned not to 'pass the buck' if Pisa rankings show further Scottish decline

Aberdeen University King's College building

Scottish Government tells Aberdeen University to 'carefully consider' cuts

Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville. Image: Jane Barlow/Press Association.

SNP sets out plans for benefits in an independent Scotland

Fiona Campbell is chief executive of the Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers.

Edinburgh’s festivals: Tourism chief warns of exodus of short-term let operators

Sturgeon and Yousaf should fund 'loss and damage' they caused back home Brian Monteith

Tory education spokesman Liam Kerr MSP

SNP urged to end uncertainty over £10m fund used to train thousands of workers

The Scottish Government is being told to increase council budgets. Image: Matt Cardy/Getty Images.

Warning Scottish councils could go 'bankrupt'

Rangers fans caused a delay to proceedings at Dens Park last month with a pyrotechnic display.

Rangers warn of sanctions over pyro as clear festive fixture message given

Beautiful places, such as the Isle of Skye are among Scotland's greatest assets. Picture: Getty Images/iStockphoto

Scotland short-changing environment and undermining one of our greatest assets

Exclusive A9 dualling: Three mega contracts to speed up completion considered

A photo issued by the Local Government Association showing damage to a school built with RAAC. Credit: LGA

Seven Scottish private schools found to contain dangerous Raac concrete

Loch Lomond. Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Ministers accused of ‘jeopardising the future’ by cutting environmental budgets

Alex Cole-Hamlton: Sluggishness is my word of the year for Holyrood Alex Cole-Hamilton

Controlling short-term lets and growing tourism economy is a balancing act Scotsman comment

Alba Party leader Alex Salmond. Image: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images.

Alex Salmond insists his court case won’t stop SNP support

Alba Party Holyrood leader Ash Regan MSP (right), party leader Alex Salmond (lelft) and Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh (centre), party chair, hold a press conference in Edinburgh. Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Alba party sets out plan to hold 2024 vote on extending powers for independence

Circular Economy Minister Lorna Slater. Image: Jane Barlow/Press Association.

Scottish Government criticised for a lack of financial planning

NHS Grampian is not currently in a position to progress the project says its chief executive.

Call for government funding to help NHS Grampian roll out electronic communicati...

SEPA recently revealed that the Aberdeenshire gas plant produced 1.35milion tonnes of climate changing carbon dioxide in 2022

Scottish Government warned Peterhead fossil fuel power plans are 'climate disast...

Banff and Buchan MP David Duguid says he will continue to push for an improved service.

Banff and Buchan ‘pushed to very back of the queue’ after it’s snubbed again for...

Humza Yousaf visits Forth Valley Royal Hospital, Larbert, to mark the 75th anniversary of the NHS in July (Picture: Lesley Martin/pool/Getty Images)

Embattled leadership of health board criticised by governance review

Amanda Croft, interim chief executive of NHS Forth Valley, and Janie McCusker, chair of NHS Forth Valley, ahead of the the public session. Picture: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire

'Ageing population' contributing to issues at 'stage four' health board

In 2021 Nicola Sturgeon vowed to abolish all NHS dentistry charges if the SNP was re-elected; this month the Scottish Government halved the number of check-ups to which patients are entitled, while hiking treatment costs (Picture: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

Readers' Letters: NHS Scotland dental check-up cuts are a pain in the wallet

The Park Authority is setting out three potential options regarding fire management byelaws

Park Authority to consult on introduction of fire byelaws

We're sleepwalking to climate Armageddon – Alastair Dalton Alastair Dalton

Tom Walker is head of wind at renewables multinational Statkraft, which operates several onshore wind and solar assets in Scotland and the UK has recently opened a new headquarters in Glasgow

How wind sector deal will help meet an era-defining challenge

Damian Barr took part in an in-converation event with Sir Ian Rankin at the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Picture: Stewart Attwood

Writer Damian Barr on protecting bookshops, libraries and arts funding

Much more work needs to be done to ensure a 'just transition' for workers when the Grangemouth oil refinery closes (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Grangemouth closure plan no surprise, so lack of just transition is worrying

Analysis How has NHS Scotland run up a £395m deficit?

First Minister Humza Yousaf addresses delegates on the first day of the STUC Congress in Dundee in April

SNP 'wedded to secrecy' as significant Freedom of Information reform rejected

Scottish Greens co-leader and Scottish net zero buildings minister Patrick Harvie has outlined proposals for a new Heat in Buildings Bill, which it is hoped will be passed in 2025. Picture: Jane Barlow/Getty Images

All properties to start move from oil and gas boilers to green systems in 2028

Scotland's net-zero drive will achieve little while China keeps burning coal John McLellan

Wood burners and open fires are the second biggest source of small particle air pollution in the UK. Photo: Adobe

Calls to ban wood burner fuels in bid to prevent pollution-related diseases

Police Scotland have issued a fresh warning about cutbacks ahead of next month's Scottish Budget. Picture: John Devlin

Police Scotland warns of ‘severe’ consequences unless funding boosted

Activists assemble at Trafalgar Square for a Fighting HIV Stigma protest. Picture: Sinai Noor/Shutterstock

Scottish patient shares her experience of coming out as HIV positive

A sign for the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) building in Edinburgh.

New SQA chair appointed to help oversee replacement of Scotland's exams body

A Holyrood committee has warned the criminal justice system in Scotland is "unsustainable" and cannot withstand "marginal" budget increases to maintain vital services

Scotland's criminal justice budget ‘unsustainable’, ministers warned

Grangemouth petrochemical refinery on the Firth of Forth is the only operating crude oil refinery in Scotland

Scotsman Letters: Labour planning to maintain our only oil refinery after 2025?

Kelsey Mackay. left, of Armadale, West Lothian, who is backing the call for targeted lung cancer screening to be introduced in Scotland, after her mother, Christine Livingstone, right, died from the disease at St John's Hospital, West Lothian, in September 2013, aged 52. Photo: Kelsey Mackay/PA Wire

Daughter backs lung cancer screening plans

Scotland's First Minister Humza Yousaf has not had his troubles to seek. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

Alex Salmond's latest intervention shows Humza Yousaf just can't catch a break

Grangemouth, Scotland's only oil refinery, could close as soon as Spring 2025 with the loss of hundreds of jobs (Picture: Getty)

Readers' Letters: Grangemouth closure symbolic of Scottish Government failures

The Heat in Buildings strategy, announced in 2021, is a key part of the Bute House power-sharing agreement between the SNP and Scottish Greens. Picture: Lisa Ferguson

Westminster dragging of climate into culture war could cause ‘immense harm’

A gamekeeper burning off heather on a Grouse moor. Picture: Steve Cox/Shutterstock

MSPs call for more clarity on how wildlife policy will work in practice

One of two Caledonian Macbrayne ferries being built in the Ferguson Marine shipyard in Port Glasgow, Inverclyde. Picture: PA

Labour peer says delayed ferries have 'robbed taxpayers'

A SNP MSP has warned about Scotland deepening economic ties with China. Picture: Getty Images

SNP MSP says Scotland deepening ties with China not in 'national interest'

Grangemouth oil refinery could close as early as spring 2025 with the loss of 400 jobs (Picture: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Grangemouth closure plan sees the SNP heading for a collision with reality

Plans to close the Grangemouth oil refinery, possibly by spring 2025, demonstrate how difficult the transition to net zero could be for Scotland's economy (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

With SNP-Green coalition in charge, net zero may not be in safe hands

Violence and aggression have no place in our schools (Picture: Scott Barbour/Getty Images)

Violence and aggression in Scotland's schools is now a national crisis

External Affairs Secretary Angus Robertson has been visiting a number of Chinese cities (Picture: Scottish Parliament/PA Wire)

Scotland should not get too cosy with Communist China as others ‘de-risk’

The Scottish Government has been accused of "running out of puff" in efforts to tackle smoking as figures show a target for the number of Scots quitting was missed last year.

Government criticised for failing to meet own targets on smokers quitting

Alex Salmond delivering a speech at the Alba party's local government election manifesto launch at the Caird Hall, Dundee. Picture: PA

Salmond says 'day of reckoning' coming as he launches legal action

The Scotsman Top Stories

Scotland has failed to meet its latest target for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, the latest official figures show. Picture: John Giles/PA Wire

Fail: Scotland misses climate target

Pro-independence protesters with Scottish Saltire flags (top) march for Scottish independence. Picture: Andy Buchanan/AFP via Getty Images

Yousaf: Growing popular support for Yes the only way to Scottish independence

Nadine Dorries. Picture: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

SNP MP cleared of bullying Nadine Dorries