Modern Scot - 01/10/2026

Transport  ·  1 October 2026

Public Money, Private Shortlist: CMAL Will Not Name the Shipyards Bidding for Scotland’s Next Lifeline Ferry

Scotland’s publicly owned ferry buyer is defending a decision not to reveal which shipyards are competing to build the replacement for the 36-year-old MV Lord of the Isles. Ferguson Marine, another company owned by the Scottish Government, is outside the…

Environment  ·  27 September 2026

Scotland’s 3G Pitches May Lose Up to 1,772 Tonnes of Microplastic a Year as New Sites Are Still Funded

Artificial football turf in Scotland may be losing between 443 and 1,772 tonnes of microplastic into the environment every year. The estimate comes from work cited by Environmental Standards Scotland. It is not a measured national total. The regulator says…

Policy and Government  ·  27 September 2026

Your NHS Records, Tissue and DNA: When Scotland Can Share Them, and How Companies Can Profit From Their Use

Scotland is building a health research system in which information produced during ordinary NHS care, such as hospital records, prescriptions, laboratory results and, increasingly, genomic information, can be linked and analysed for research. Private companies are being given clearer routes…

Transport  ·  1 October 2026

Following a Global Climate Agenda: Scotland’s £2 Buses to Push Travel Away From Cars

Scotland’s £2 bus cap is being presented as help with the cost of living, but the Government’s own documents place cheaper public transport inside a much larger programme intended to influence how people travel. That policy chain reaches beyond Scotland…

Environment  ·  27 September 2026

Scotland Knows the Pesticides It Uses, But Less About Where They Go

Almost every hectare of Scotland’s arable farmland received a pesticide treatment in 2024. The country’s arable crops covered about 502,400 hectares. Once repeat treatments through the growing season were counted, from herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, growth regulators, seed treatments and others,…

Infrastructure  ·  28 September 2026

New Report Proposes Moving Scotland’s School-Education Functions Out of 32 Council Authorities

Scotland’s 32 councils could cease to operate as individual education authorities under a new reform proposal published by the Scottish Government today, with responsibility for school education transferred to larger Local Schools Authorities and much of the money for schools…

Policy and Government  ·  30 September 2026

COSLA Tells Ministers Council Reform Must Be Agreed, Not Imposed

Scotland’s council body has formally responded to proposals for six to ten regional authorities and 120 to 160 community authorities, asking ministers to commit that structural changes will proceed only through agreement with existing local government. Scotland’s council leaders have…

Economy  ·  30 September 2026

The EU Antimicrobial Restriction on Brazilian Meat Is Now in Force. Great Britain Still Allows Brazilian Beef

The regulatory divergence forecast by Scotland’s meat industry in August has now happened. Brazil lost European Union authorisation for several categories of animal products on 3 September, while Great Britain continues to maintain an import route for beef from approved…

Economy  ·  30 September 2026

After Scotland Lost Hundreds of Bank Branches, Shared Hubs Are Building a Different Network

The rapid disappearance of conventional branches is now being followed by an expanding system of shared banking hubs. They restore cash services and scheduled face-to-face access, but they do not recreate the bank branch that disappeared. Scotland’s retreat from traditional…

Community  ·  30 September 2026

Scotland’s Wastewater-Drug Monitoring Decision Returns to View After Nitazenes Reach 247 Deaths

Scotland recorded 1,133 drug-use deaths in 2025, with nitazenes implicated in 247 and cocaine in 589. The figures do not show that wastewater surveillance would have prevented individual deaths, but they provide new context for the decision not to spend…

Economy  ·  30 September 2026

Great British Energy Had No Direct Employees in March. By September It Had 55

The public company’s first annual accounts and later parliamentary answers show the transition taking place behind its Aberdeen headquarters: a workforce initially assembled entirely from civil servants, secondees and contractors is beginning to become a directly employed organisation. Great British…

Policy and Government  ·  30 September 2026

Scotland’s Digital ID: ScotAccount Uses Experian, Cifas and Biometric Checks

The Scottish Government opposes a mandatory UK digital identity scheme. At the same time, Scotland already operates its own reusable digital identity service. For people asked to verify who they are, a passport can be only one part of a…

Highland  ·  30 September 2026

Highland Sends Two More Short-Term Let Control Areas to Scottish Ministers

Councillors have approved proposals covering Inverness and a broad sweep of the rural Highlands. If ministers agree, future conversions of homes to secondary short-term lets in the designated areas would automatically require planning permission. Highland Council has approved two new…

Energy  ·  28 September 2026

Scotland Has a 32.8GW Battery Pipeline as Ofgem Proposes a Financial Test for Grid Places

Scotland has accumulated 32.8 gigawatts of proposed battery-storage capacity in its planning pipeline, making batteries the largest single technology awaiting development in the country's renewable-energy system. Most of those batteries do not yet exist. Some have planning permission, some remain…

Energy  ·  30 September 2026

Electricity VAT Falls to Zero on 1 October, Yet Ofgem’s Typical Dual-Fuel Cap Rises £60

VAT disappears from domestic electricity bills across Scotland tomorrow, but the representative annual cost under Ofgem’s price cap will still rise from £1,663 to £1,723. The reason is largely gas: wholesale prices have risen, gas remains taxed at 5 per…

Policy and Government  ·  28 September 2026

Scotland Has No Compulsory Sale Order — and England’s Six-Month Empty-Home Reform Does Not Apply Here

If you own a property in Scotland, rent one out, are trying to sell one, or have seen reports that councils are being given the power to take over homes after they have stood empty for six months, the position…

Heritage and Arts  ·  1 October 2026

When Scotland Made Christmas a Working Day: Yule Customs That Survived

Scotland did not simply stop celebrating Christmas after the Reformation. Kirk courts punished people for keeping Yule, Parliament removed the Christmas court holiday, and Christmas Day remained an ordinary working day for generations. Yet the old season persisted in bread,…

Heritage and Arts  ·  1 October 2026

The Highland Scots Who Opposed Slavery in Colonial America

The famous declaration that perpetual slavery was “shocking to human nature” is genuine. So are the petition’s arguments about debt, labour, Spanish Florida and security. Newly revisited records also show Scots campaigning on both sides of the dispute, a political…

Tea With Gunns  ·  1 October 2026

Artificial Intelligence Is Coming for Humanity, Just After It Finishes This Email

I discovered this week that British workers are spending an estimated £958 million of their own money every year on artificial intelligence to help them do their jobs, which is not how I remember employment working when I first encountered…