Latest news with #ScottishGovernment
Scottish Sun
4 hours ago
- Health
- Scottish Sun
Cosmetic cowboys face ban amid crackdown on dodgy fillers & bad Botox in Scotland
The Scottish Government has revealed new proposals to crack down on risky cosmetic surgery procedures HAD THEIR FILL Cosmetic cowboys face ban amid crackdown on dodgy fillers & bad Botox in Scotland Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) COSMETIC cowboys who are flooding Scotland's streets with dodgy fillers and bad Botox are facing a ban. In recent months there have been a raft of horror stories about botched treatments and poorly trained practitioners ghosting clients after procedures have gone wrong. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 2 The Scottish Government has introduced new proposals to stop unregulated procedures Credit: Getty And Scotland was branded the worst place in Europe for dodgy lip fillers and Botox. But now the Scottish Government has revealed new proposals to crack down on risky cosmetic surgery procedures. It aims to stop botched procedures and shut down backstreet surgeries that have left a number of patients with life changing injuries. As the sector is not currently fully regulated, anybody can carry out the procedures without formal training. However, under the proposed legislation, fillers and the use of Botox will have to be supervised by a qualified healthcare professional. While, "breast and buttock augmentations" must be carried out by a qualified professional. Microneedling and cosmetic laser treatments will require both a premises licence and individual practitioner licences issued by local authorities. Medical professionals have welcomed the move but have also warned that the new rules might still allow unqualified people to carry out less dangerous procedures. Dr Ben Taylor-Davies, who runs the Stockbridge Clinic in Edinburgh, told the Daily Record: "Whilst I firmly believe injectable treatments such as Botox and dermal fillers should only ever be carried out by a registered medical professional, the Scottish Government's proposals are a big step in the right direction for patient safety in Scotland. "For too long the public has been at unacceptable levels of risk. People have come to significant harm due to the lack of regulation. I'm Olivia Attwood's beautician here's why you should avoid 'preventative Botox' "Now we need to make sure this is implemented across Scotland and that the necessary legal powers exist to protect the public from unnecessary harm. "Hopefully this is just the start of a wider theme of tighter regulation that will ultimately protect public safety." The Scottish Government proposals also intends to introduce a minimum age of 18 for all procedures. The changes will bring Scotland into line with England - where the UK Government made it an offence for an unregulated person to give Botox or filler to under-18s in 2021. Public Health Minister Jenni Minto said: "It is deeply upsetting to hear of cases where people have suffered as a result of non-surgical cosmetic procedures going wrong. "The current gaps in regulation mean that anyone can perform most of these procedures without the need for any formal training or qualifications. Steps before treatment THE T.I.M.E initiative, a consumer safety scheme supported by MPs, influential bodies and key industry figures, to ensure consumers get the best possible experience and better protect themselves. Their checklist for customers to ask practioners aims to help people know what to be aware of when booking in for treatments: TRAINING – What qualifications and training, including continual professional development (CPD) do you and all your staff have? INSURANCE – Are you insured and, if so, who by? MONITORING – Do you carry out important pre and post appointment processes such as patch tests, consultations and aftercare? EVIDENCE – Is there certified proof of training, insurance and any client testimonials? "These proposals reflect our determination to protect the public and ensure high standards across this growing industry. "I am particularly heartened by the broad support for action to make the sector safer, and we will continue to work closely with Healthcare Improvement Scotland, local authorities, and the wider industry to support a smooth and effective implementation." Last year Kathryn Tumulcha, from Dalkeith, spoke out after a Botox jab left her looking like she'd had a stroke after going to a 'cheap practitioner'. While, Renata Wojno, from East Kilbride, blamed herself after being left with lumps on her face from a cosmetic injectable after finding a woman on Facebook who did the jabs from her home. Katie Price's beautician was banned from operating in Glasgow after a woman's Brazilian bum lift procedure resulted in a 999 dash. The company carried out the BBL in a hotel function room at a Holiday Inn in the city centre in March, which left the 49-year-old in agony.
The Herald Scotland
6 hours ago
- The Herald Scotland
Classrooms in chaos: Teachers need option of excluding pupils
Surely this was an exaggeration, dramatic licence? people asked. The notion that teachers really have no means of enforcing good behaviour seems absurd to those who are a few decades out of short trousers. But ask current teachers if they recognise the scenes and the response is not reassuring. 'There's so little you can do,' one told me, 'and the kids know it.' Disruptive, abusive and violent behaviour in schools has become a bona fide crisis in Scotland as in England since the pandemic and many teachers feel their hands are tied in dealing with it. Many Scottish schoolchildren feel safe in their schools, thankfully, but not all do and nor do their teachers, against a nationwide increase in disruptive behaviour. Read more Rebecca McQuillan Some teachers describe 'lawless' schools where pupils refuse point blank to do what they are told and square up to staff. Forty four per cent of Scottish teachers in a recent survey by the NASUWT teaching union reported experiencing physical abuse or violence in the previous year. Women report experiencing more physical assaults than men. Staff at one East Dumbartonshire school took industrial action earlier this year over 'a culture of abuse and violence from pupils'. Many teachers are at the end of their tethers. Mike Corbett of the NASUWT describes how in tackling bad behaviour, the use of restorative conversations is the norm, where children are encouraged to take accountability and repair relationships that have been damaged. But he stresses that this type of approach, while useful, just isn't enough to cope with the range of problems school staff face. Teachers need other options – right up to and including exclusion – and that is what has been lacking. Or it was until this week. The Scottish Government has now published long-awaited new guidance on behaviour. But will it help? Teachers have been crying out for a wider range of tools to deal with aggressive behaviour and for schools to have the confidence to use them. The guidance appears to offer that. It stresses the importance of schools having a culture of positive relationships and behaviour, with clear expectations of pupils, well understood consequences and consistent application of the school rules. But teaching unions, who helped design the guidance, stress that the most important part is the appendix, where a list of exemplars of poor behaviour and possible consequences are laid out. The NASUWT welcomes the description there of 'an escalating set of consequences', including things like detention and, where absolutely necessary, exclusion. Teachers need other options – right up to and including exclusion – and that is what has been lacking in recent years (Image: free) No school wants to exclude pupils, for solid reasons. Twenty years ago, ministers sought to drive down exclusions, in response to strong evidence that pupils who were excluded had significantly lower levels of attainment and were much more likely to become offenders. When the use of exclusions fell, it was rightly seen as a positive development. But some head teachers, fearful of being criticised if they excluded children, started regarding the option as prohibited altogether. That left them with limited options for dealing with instances of serious, dangerous behaviour. That has contributed to a sense of helplessness among teachers faced with a rising tide of violence. Exclusion in the new guidance is described as as 'a last resort, where this approach is proportionate and there is no appropriate alternative'. Many teachers will be glad the Scottish Government is explicitly including it in the list of options for teachers but they also know that exclusion was never and will never be the answer on its own. We've come a long way with the focus today in schools on the 'why' of pupil behaviour rather than just the 'what'. Given the profile of children who are traditionally most at risk of exclusion – those with unmet additional support needs (ASN), looked after children and those from deprived backgrounds – meeting those children's needs more effectively is clearly a huge part of the answer. It's easy for politicians to dismiss such approaches as touchy-feely and call for harsher consequences but disruptive behaviour can't be tackled in a lasting way unless its causes are addressed. Tackling the 'why' is better for the child and for the whole school. And that is demanding for any school. It requires close collaboration with educational psychology, social work and underfunded mental health services, and it also means thinking differently about the way some children are educated. Read more Particularly for children with ASN, the difficulty so many mainstream schools have meeting their needs is raising serious questions about the inflexibility of the system. Some schools, though not all, now have 'wellbeing hubs' or 'nurture spaces' where such children can spend time productively in a supportive environment; we'll need a lot more focus on developing these spaces and staffing them properly in future. At the same time, and separately from these issues, teachers report a trend for parents and children to value school less. In a survey last year by the NASUWT, one teacher commented that 'it has become more common for learners to see school as optional'. Pity our head teachers: they now face a whole new challenge in persuading those parents to value their children's education more. Will it work? Will the tide go out on classroom violence and abuse? It could, provided these principles are shared with teachers and embedded in schools, and schools have the staff and resources to better support all children in their care. But the positive headlines may be some time coming. Rebecca McQuillan is a journalist specialising in politics and Scottish affairs. She can be found on Bluesky at @ and on X at @BecMcQ
Scotsman
9 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Scottish civil servants who object to bus travel show just how out of touch they are
Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... If Ricky Gervais is looking for inspiration for a new sitcom, he should cast a beady eye over the goings-on at St Andrew's House, home of Scotland's civil servants. Gervais and Stephen Merchant created The Office, one of the UK's all-time great TV comedies, a mockumentary set in a paper company in Slough. It chronicled the absurdities of office life, from petty bureaucracy to poor leadership. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad A peak moment came in the first series, when Gervais, who played David Brent – a crass, attention-seeking office manager – livened up a staff training day with an impromptu dance. His cringeworthy dad dancing is an iconic moment in the history of British comedy. The head of Scotland's civil service, Joe Griffin, is no Ricky Gervais. To be fair, he's not even a David Brent. He is too well paid for that role. But his performance at a Holyrood committee earlier this week was as vacuous as any of Brent's inane utterings. Some of today's civil servants in the Scottish Government appear to be just as farcical as The Office's David Brent, played by Ricky Gervais (Picture: Ian West) | PA Lots of action? Asked repeatedly by Michelle Thomson MSP when the Scottish Government was going to implement the recent Supreme Court ruling on sex and gender, Griffin responded with a jumble of excuses. He accepts the court's ruling and is taking action. What action? A range of actions, it seems, including a short-life working group to take stock of the actions required. He couldn't specify any detail of the actions, as the group are still 'preparing the ground' for future actions. There will be actions, but only when the time is right. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Griffin, who was only recently promoted to Scotland's top government job, tried to pass the blame for his inaction to the UK's Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), claiming that he could not act until the equality regulator had concluded its review of the statutory guidance. An excuse that turns out to have less credibility than 'Please sir, the dog ate my homework'. Trans guidance for schools and prisons In an exchange of letters between campaign group For Women Scotland (FWS) and EHRC, the latter's head, Baroness Falkner, made it clear on June 20 – four days before Griffin gave his evidence – that the Scottish Government has already been told that there is no need to wait for guidance and should 'be seeking to update their policies and practices in the light of the new understanding of the law…' In other words, the Scottish Government can, and should, take action now to rescind two controversial documents: its transgender guidance for schools and the Scottish Prison Service transgender custody policy, neither of which comply with the Equality Act. Perhaps more worrying for the Permanent Secretary is that, at a meeting on June 5, a senior civil servant told For Women Scotland and others, that the EHRC had advised the Scottish Government it must wait for the final code of practice to be published before taking any action – a claim contested by EHRC. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad No doubt the Permanent Secretary has set up a short-life action group to work out how to respond to For Women Scotland's request that the matter is now fully investigated 'in light of the standards expected under the civil service code'. Working from home But first, he will have to find enough people in St Andrew's House to staff it, and there he might struggle. Most of Scotland's 9,000 civil servants work from home, scattered across spare bedrooms and office pods the length and breadth of Scotland. But under Griffin's leadership that is about to change – or is it? He told the committee that, from October, civil servants will be expected to turn up at the office at least two days a week. Cue shrieks of outrage from civil servants who, from the comfort of their sofa – sorry, home office – logged on to Saltire, the government's internal communications system, to express their horror. They raged about a breach of their civil rights, while making unreasonable demands for doing what they are handsomely paid to do, that is, turn up at work. Some asked that taxpayers subsidise their transport costs, others suggested the re-opening of the swimming pool at Victoria Quay, the government's Leith HQ, as the price for their co-operation. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Taking the bus My particular favourite, and the one that sums up the current civil service's attitude to the rest of us, was the uncivil servant who expressed his fear of using public transport. 'At least in the safety of my Fiat Tipo I'm not going to be sitting in someone else's urine,' he said. As someone who, for five years, got a 27 bus to and from St Andrew's House at least five days a week, I can safely say I never once sat on a seat soaked in pee, not even at 6.30am. During my time in government, I also worked with some of the cleverest people in Scotland, some of whom remain friends to this day. Of course, there were time-servers, people whose only job was to book travel for their boss or senior managers in charge of 'special' projects, designed to keep them out of sight. But the culture was overwhelmingly rooted in old-fashioned public service. Today's civil service seems a different beast to what it was in 1999 or even 2009, and it is not just because there are far more of them. Since 2019, staff numbers in the Scottish Government core departments have jumped by 38 per cent. Despite its claim to be collaborative and innovative, kind even, its organisational personality is a caricature of a progressive elite, divorced from the realities of everyday life. Historically high waiting times for cancer patients, the affordable housing crisis and an explosion of violence in schools may be the stuff that concerns you and I, but the focus of Scotland's civil servants seems elsewhere – on themselves.
Scotsman
9 hours ago
- Business
- Scotsman
Silence of the Goats: Slaughtered animals reveal how SNP is creating £4.7bn black hole in public finances
Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... My MSP of the week, she might be surprised to learn, is Rachael Hamilton, the Tory who represents Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, for an eloquent plea on behalf of goats, in a Holyrood committee. In a week when the SNP admitted it has dug a £4.7 billion black hole for itself – or rather, for all of us – it is a significant story not only for goat-lovers but as an illustration of how money is squandered without any understanding of what it is intended to achieve. I'll get back to the goats. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The bleak warning from Shona Robison, the hapless Finance Secretary, was slipped out in time for MSPs to go off on a two-month break. If I were taking a scythe to public expenditure, Holyrood and its countless apparatchiks would be a symbolically good place to start, before moving on to the quangos. A feral goat with a kid in the Tarras Valley near the town of Langholm | Katharine Hay Bad spending decisions For openers, Ms Robison promised cuts of £1bn a year to 'administration costs'. These are a symptom of the malaise as well as a cause but at least it seems to have dawned that spending money they don't have, then blaming 'Westminster' for not sending enough, has hit the buffers of credibility. The mission of the devolved government should be straightforward if the rules are observed – ie, you have a fixed budget, plus tax-raising powers, and your job is to spend it efficiently and effectively. The SNP have never respected these rules because they crave for entirely different ones. That conflict is incapable of resolution. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad By any reasonable standard, the Scottish Government is very well funded and receives far in excess – £22bn at the last count – of the revenues raised in Scotland. So get on with it. Instead, there has been no real fiscal discipline because the escape clause will always be to blame someone else. The £4.7bn black hole is made up of hundreds of spending decisions, few of them open to meaningful challenge at Holyrood, and many devolved to quangos which control massive budgets. There is no equivalent of the Public Accounts Committee at Westminster, which might penetrate the culture of waste and obfuscation. Ancient, wild herd But let me return to the goats of Newcastleton, whose plight is deserving of attention in its own right. They are, Ms Hamilton explained, victims of the Scottish Government's efforts to promote a market in 'natural capital' which requires large areas of Scotland to be flogged off to 'green' speculators intending to make large profits out of carbon credits. To be fair, she didn't put it like that, but it is a fair summary. In this case, an Exeter-based outfit called Oxygen Conservation Capital acquired 11,400 acres of Langholm moor in 2023 and now intend 'to cull 85 per cent of the ancient herd of wild goats on the moor'. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad This, Ms Hamilton told the Scottish Parliament, 'is causing distress in the community. Those goats are not only of ecological importance but are of significant cultural and heritage value. More than 12,000 local residents have signed a petition for the goats' protection'. Alas, Ms Hamilton reported, the cull was already underway and 'the goat meat is in the butcher's shop'. Then came the nub of her argument. 'I do not think that the issue is really about goats, though… my point speaks entirely to the fact that grants from the Scottish Government have gone to an offshore investment company that is creating very few jobs and has upset 12,000 people,' she told MSPs. She added: 'The government needs to look at this, because we are at the very start of the natural investment process. Pension companies will buy up swathes of land and do pretty much what they want, without the say of communities.' Well spoken, Ms Hamilton. Carbon credits That, in SNP terms, is what passes for 'land reform' and, of course, it is also inflating land values to make Scotland's land ownership structure even more grotesque. Simple question: Why are many million pounds of Scottish Government money encouraging this speculative process rather than taking community interest as the starting point? Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad I can find no trace of that fundamental question having been debated at Holyrood before it became an assumed good that subsidising speculators in carbon credits should be the preferred approach on the road to net zero. Once that silo was created, it was there to stay. For the sake of completeness, I should acknowledge that Ms Hamilton moved an amendment to the Land Reform Bill calling for an 'ethical framework for natural capital investment... developed in consultation with individuals and communities that have a legitimate interest'. That sounds pretty reasonable but it was defeated by five votes (four SNP, one Green) to four. Greens Against Goats, apparently. Proper funding for high priorities The Scottish Government's approach to spending imposes no requirement to take an overview of priorities in order to review them. Just keep adding… more commitments, more quangos, more civil servants. It has taken nearly 20 years to embed these silos and they have no intention of being disturbed. Ms Robison certainly isn't going to do it. A day-one commitment by the SNP's opponents must be to a Comprehensive Spending Review, with no line of expenditure exempt. The highest priorities must be funded properly. However tenaciously guarded by vested interests, the spending silos, large and small, must be challenged. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad There has to be a real sense of change from a devolved government which respects the rules and has no agenda other than to deliver for Scotland. And if that involves not handing money to 'green' speculators to slaughter much-loved goats, I will make sure Ms Hamilton gets her share of the credit.
The Herald Scotland
10 hours ago
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Swinney government accused of twisting EHRC advice
The comments earned a stinging rebuke from Baroness Kishwer Falkner, the Chair of the EHRC, who said the Commission had made it "clear" to civil servants that public bodies should not wait for updated guidance before acting on the judgment. The peer said she was "very concerned that our conversations with officials appear to have been misrepresented". FWS told The Herald they were stunned by the claims from officials: 'At what point does this stop being ignorant incompetence and tip into wilful malpractice?' Read more: In April, the UK's highest court ruled unanimously that a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) does not alter a person's sex for the purposes of the Equality Act. The judgment clarified that the terms 'man' and 'woman' in the legislation refer to biological sex, not acquired gender. The EHRC then issued interim guidance in May related to trans people's use of facilities including including changing rooms and toilets, and participation in sports. It also launched a consultation on changes to parts of its code of practice for services, public functions and associations, which is due to conclude on June 30. The watchdog is due to publish the updated code later this year. While First Minister John Swinney initially welcomed the 'clarity' provided by the ruling, the Scottish Government has repeatedly said it is waiting for this further guidance before issuing new guidance of its own to Scotland's public bodies. However, the EHRC has repeatedly said that the ruling applies now and that "those with duties under the Equality Act 2010 should be following the law and looking at what changes, if any, need to be made to their policies and practices". For Women Scotland following the court ruling (Image: PA) After the meeting with the Equalities Directorate, FWS wrote to the EHRC to question the claims made by officials. Baroness Falkner replied: "As you rightly point out, our public messaging has been that the law as set out by the Supreme Court is effective immediately. "We have been clear in our public messaging and in direct conversations with duty-bearers, including the Scottish Government, that they should not wait for our guidance but should be seeking to update their policies and practices in the light of the new understanding of the law, taking their own specialist legal advice where necessary." Earlier this week, FWS wrote to the Scottish Government's Permanent Secretary Joe Griffin calling for a full investigation, saying it was "extremely concerning that statements made by a senior government official to a third party about EHRC advice have been directly contested by the regulatory body itself". In a letter to the campaigners on Friday, seen by The Herald, Mr Griffin did not challenge FWS's account of the meeting, and said his team would "revert in due course" with a fuller response. He said the Government accepted the Supreme Court's judgment and "acknowledges the EHRC statement that duty-bearers should not wait for our statutory Code of Practice for Services, Public Functions and Associations to be in place to review their policies to ensure they are complying with the law as now settled by the Supreme Court". This, he added, "aligns with the approach the Scottish Government has taken since the judgment was issued in April". Read more: In Holyrood on Wednesday, Mr Griffin was pressed by SNP MSP Michelle Thomson to name any concrete action the Government had taken since the ruling. Mr Griffin said only that the "short life working group" had been established to prepare for implementation. He could not identify any specific changes made to guidance or policy. Asked whether the threat of legal action — including two formal pre-litigation notices issued by FWS and Sex Matters — had prompted a rethink, Mr Griffin insisted that his advice remained that it was appropriate to wait for final EHRC guidance. Susan Smith from FWS told The Herald: 'After the rambling performance of the Permanent Secretary at committee, it was clear that the Scottish Government has done nothing to comply with the Supreme Court ruling. 'To justify this, the civil service has materially misrepresented the advice given by the EHRC. There is no justification for Ministers or civil servants to ignore the law, and these highly paid public servants and politicians should not sit on their haunches while grassroots women's groups with little power or funding explain to them the basic principles of law and professional standards. Scotland deserves better. 'To say we are shocked is an understatement. At what point does this stop being ignorant incompetence and tip into wilful malpractice? 'The only recourse open to us is to return to court. But given the Scottish Government resoundingly ignored earlier Court of Session rulings and is now seemingly intent on not implementing the UK Supreme Court judgment it appears largely futile and a further waste of taxpayers' money. Has the Scottish Government really put itself beyond the law?' A Scottish Government spokesperson said: "The Scottish Government has been clear that we accept the Supreme Court judgment and that public bodies have a duty to comply with the law. "Work is proceeding at pace to implement the ruling across Government. We have established a Short Life Working Group to ensure support and consistency in this. "We expect public bodies to be analysing policies and procedures and this is what is happening. For example, Police Scotland this week issued interim guidance on searching, including searching of transgender people. "The Scottish Government has also updated the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018 guidance to reflect the judgment in relation to the definition of 'woman' under the Equality Act and this is now published online. "The recent changes to the Equality and Human Rights Commission's interim update demonstrate the complexity of this work and the need for extensive legal advice and consultation with stakeholders. We will continue to take this work forward at pace in a way which protects the rights of everyone in society. "The Permanent Secretary has responded to For Women Scotland."
