January 10th – January 16th, 2026
Is the government being honest about A96 plans? Swinney goes back to Court; do Rural Areas have adequate Fire Cover? … but first …
‘Secret’ Grangemouth Refinery Plans
Have the Scottish government been kept in the dark about plans for the former Grangemouth refinery site? It says it learned from the media about UK government plans to turn the old Grangemouth refinery site into a munitions factory, with other sites at the Finnart oil terminal at Loch Long, and Ardeer, Ayrshire, also being considered as ‘potential sites of interest’. When challenged, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) denied it had failed to communicate with Scotland, saying Scotland was made aware directly or possibly via Scottish Enterprise. The latter denied discussing anything with the MoD.
Are the SNP being honest about funding A96 upgrade?
Former SNP Minister Fergus Ewing has claimed that the SNP knew in March 2023 that there was no money to fully dual the A96 or even the only section agreed (Inverness to Auldearn). All that could be financed was actually the statutory process prior to construction, and it is now likely that the lack of cash will extend into the next parliamentary term 2026-31.
Perhaps their reluctance stems from a Transport Scotland review published in November 2024 which found the costs of a full upgrade would be between £2.5bn and £5bn, it would increase vehicle numbers, ‘significantly impact the environment’ and be ‘inconsistent with a number of current policy areas’. So are they serious about it at all? In response, Transport Scotland say they remain ‘fully committed to dualling the whole A96’.
People Wait 5 YEARS for Knee Ops
The Scottish government claims it will eliminate operation waiting lists of over a year by Spring 2026, but that seems a bit ambitious, given that one patient in Tayside waited 2049 days for a hip replacement, and one in Highland waited 1786 days. One Highland patient waited 1868 days for a knee operation. The waits are so bad that those with means are going abroad for their ops, with Lithuania a favoured destination despite hip and knee replacement ops costing £12,000 there.
One in nine Hospital beds blocked by delayed discharge
Audit Scotland and the Accounts Commission have said that systemic failures across health and social care have cost 720,000 bed-days a year in delayed discharges, at a cost of over £440 million. Other factors include workforce shortages, financial pressure on councils, lack of suitable housing and at-home care. Publicly-funded care home places cost £145 a day compared to £126 a day for long-term residential care; and an in-hospital bed which costs £618 a day.
Overlapping responsibilities between the Scottish government, NHS boards, councils and integration joint boards muddy the waters further. Various schemes have been attempted, including Hospital at Home and Discharge without Delay programmes, as well as rapid response teams, but perhaps we should go full-circle and re-establish convalescent hospitals/homes which used to provide a bridge between people being ill in hospital and actually fully well again.
State Housing Support ‘Not Enough’ for Private Rents
Only 8% of private lets are affordable for renters who are reliant on state housing support, and less than one tenth of the £97.1 million Scottish government housing support fund is available yearly to help those whose benefits do not cover their rent, and it is administered through local councils and is short-term and not guaranteed. Almost 89,000 people receive support in this way, but the worst-hit area is Glasgow (72% of households short every month), followed by Western Isles (67% short of money) and Midlothian and Orkney at 61%.
Fire Service cuts impact Rural Areas
Scottish Fire and Rescue admit that many on-call stations in rural locations are ‘short-crewed’ and unable to crew an appliance with the minimum of four crew for a callout, so often go out short-crewed. Only 10 out of 125 on-call fire stations had a full crew, which typically consists of an officer in charge with a valid incident command certificate, a driver with a valid emergency response certificate and two qualified breathing apparatus wearers. Retained firefighters must live or work near the community station they serve and commit to a certain number of hours of availability per week.
SFARS say that over 1200 firefighters have been lost to the service since it was amalgamated into one service, with fire appliances withdrawn and response times increased. And proposed budget cuts could lead to the loss of up to 200 firefighter jobs.
300,000 ASN Pupils
In only a decade since 2015, the number of Scottish school pupils with Additional Support Needs has almost doubled from 22.5% to 43% to a total of 299,445 pupils. In secondary schools the figure is 48.8%, but over 90% of ASN pupils are kept in mainstream classes, and only 1,165 pupils in total have a legally-enforceable Coordinated Support Plan (CSP). Some suspect that councils have reached the point where they are reluctant to issue CSPs at all unless they are absolutely forced to.
The government says the responsibility to issue CSPs lies with councils, but they are hamstrung by a lack of finance, which mostly stems from funding cuts from the Scottish government, who recognise the difficulty and have said they will be reviewing the statutory guidance on the use of CSPs.
SNP ‘Snoop’ on Vessels at Sea
From March this year, new rules will force pelagic (midwater) trawlers fishing for mackerel, herring and blue whiting to fit Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM) equipment, which covers every area on the vessel where fish are caught, handled or processed, and automatically start recording as soon as nets are cast. The Scottish government claims that REM will ensure fish stocks remain healthy, but fishermen themselves maintain it is they who are being monitored, not the fish. One problem is that if the IT system hits a glitch and stops monitoring, fishermen are legally obliged to stop fishing immediately, potentially leading to huge losses which can cost boats their whole catch and more, until the glitch is fixed.
The Scottish Pelagic Fishermen’s Association is strongly opposed to the measure, which has already cost skippers huge amounts of money as it has fallen to them to instal the cameras which will monitor them! Although the measure applies to all pelagic trawlers of all nations in Scottish waters, the Scottish skippers fear that they will be a much easier target for Scottish government enforcement.
Swinney off to Court Again
He loves going to court, doesn’t he? This time his court action, lodged on January 8th, is challenging the Scottish Information Commissioner’s decision to order the release of secret evidence given to the James Hamilton investigation into whether Nicola Sturgeon broke the ministerial code. James Hamilton has already aid Sturgeon gave an ‘incomplete narrative of events’ by not mentioning a key meeting, but he stated this was inadvertent and not deliberate. Perhaps going to court will remind him he still owes For Women Scotland.
Local Growth Fund ‘snubs everywhere north of Dundee’
So says the SNP’s Graham Leadbitter and Richard Lochhead, saying the decisions on funding were all made in London. The furthest north the £140 million Scottish investment went was to the Tay Cities Region, which got £19.5 million, and the biggest recipient was Glasgow, who are getting £60.9 million. Wales, on the other hand, was given £547million and total control over where it spends the money and on what.
Scottish Budget Winners ….
Transitional rates relief of £138 million will help retail, hospitality and leisure for the next 3 years; the small business bonus scheme will continue for a further 3 years; and hospitality businesses in the Highlands and Islands will retain relief at 100%. Robison provided £36 million to establish new high street walk-in GP services, and health and social care get £22.5 billion, with GP services getting £250 million. And there is also over 29% more money for the so-called Scottish ‘embassies’ abroad (up to £34.4 million) and international aid rises to £16 million. Over £4 billion will help provide 36,000 additional affordable homes over the next four years, with 70% aimed at social rent properties, but many fear that with the backlog of homes needed, that this may be well short of what is needed. The Scottish Child Payment will increase, first for those with children under one year old, and later for the rest.
…. and Losers
Scottish Finance Secretary Shona Robison has frozen higher (personal) income tax thresholds, meaning 78,000 Scottish residents will be dragged into a higher tax band when they get pay rises. Plans for five regional specialist medical centres have been shelved, with Robison refusing to say if or when they will go ahead, suggesting that existing health boards may have to step up with alternate plans. Local government finance is forecast to drop by 2.1% annually, police did not get an extra £33.7 million they need ‘just to stand still’ and the fire service got only a third of the £92 million it needs to avoid reducing firefighter numbers and repair dilapidated stations.
A New ‘Mansion Tax’
There have been many calls for changes to council tax to make it fairer, but this is certainly different. From April 1st 2028, homes valued between £1million and £2 million will have a new council tax banding of Band I, and homes over £2 million will be in a new Band J. But the sting in the tail is that house valuations for Bands I and J will be based on up-to-date valuations, whereas all other bands will remain charged on properties as at their 1991 values. There is no timeline for revaluing those properties.
But only changing the two most expensive council tax bands? Is this fair?
Finally,
Darlington Nurses Celebrate Victory
An Employment Tribunal has found that an English NHS Foundation Trust unlawfully discriminated against and harassed female nurses by requiring them to share female-only changing rooms with a biological male, violating the rights of the female staff. The tribunal considered and followed the ruling of the Supreme Court in For Women Scotland v. Scottish Ministers. As the Equality Act 2010 applies to Great Britain’s three nations, this decision will reinforce the position of gender-critical women throughout Great Britain. John Swinney, that includes Scotland, so could you just get on with telling public bodies to apply the law, or do you want more court cases?
You cannot simultaneously say you respect the Supreme Court decision and then delay and delay in implementing it in public services.