Scottish universities spend thousands on honorary degrees

By Clare Carswell

SCOTTISH Universities have shelled out £100,000 for celebrities and other notable people such as American business tycoon, Donald Trump to receive honorary degrees.

Over the past three years, Scottish universities have spent vast amounts of money on travel, accommodation and hospitality for various people they want to award an honorary degree to.

The University of St Andrews has racked up the biggest total, £60,000 including expenses for air fares and hotel accommodation. 

Last year alone, the Fife university spent more than £30,000 towards honorary degrees.  Olympic cyclist Sir Chris Hoy was one of the recipients whose appearance contributed towards that sum.

Missing Holyrood Items Include Mass Storage Devices

By Andrea McCallum

THE SCOTTISH Government has had more than 1,000 security passes, 27 laptop computers, 20 BlackBerry devices – and a banana – lost or stolen over the last five years.

Figures revealed that memory sticks, hard drives and PC base units have also gone astray since 2005 – as well as 12 apples and a business suit.

And now the loss of mass data storage devices has raised fears over the possible threat to personal privacy and organisational security.

Tory justice spokesman Bill Aitken said: “Things have indeed come to a pretty pass when even the corridors of power are not immune to the acts of criminals.

“At the same time, it goes without saying that some of our essentially high paid civil servants could take more care of their property – especially taxpayers’ property.”

Other items reported lost or stolen include a guillotine, a jar of coffee, a kettle and a bottle of champagne.

Independent MSP Margo McDonald said: “Even a small number of lost security passes falling into the wrong hands could allow a more systematic theft to be carried out.”

She added that the losses “warrant some kind of investigation into the use of equipment like this”.

Public sector organisations have faced repeated criticism over losses of data and the potential risk to personal security.

NHS Grampian was censured by the Information Commissioner’s Office in September last year after three separate incidents.

Personal data of 200 patients and staff was found in a confidential waste bag, a laptop holding personal details of 1500 patients was stolen and an email containing sensitive personal information was distributed.

Memory sticks were banned by NHS Lothian after they lost a device storing 127 patients in June 2008.

And a Royal Navy officer from the Ministry of Defence was robbed of a laptop which contained the personal details of 60,000 Scots in January 2008.

Green MSP Patrick Harvie said: “The loss of potentially sensitive data relating to people or to policy decisions is a serious concern.

“Everyone is aware of high-profile data losses of this nature and the Scottish Government needs to be vigilant.”

LibDem justice spokesman Robert Brown said the level of lost or stolen items seemed “very high”.

He added: “Of course there are people in and about in terms of visitors and staff and contractors so to that degree I can understand how it can happen.

“But it does sound as though there needs to be tighter regulation on what people do with their laptop after hours.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “The government takes the loss or theft of items from its buildings very seriously and has robust guidelines to help ensure items are kept secure.

“With regard to security passes, the percentage lost or stolen has halved since 2005.

“We continue to work to achieve the highest levels of security and work is under way to improve the security incident management process.”

Row over “world’s strongest lager”

By Paul Thornton

ALCOHOL campaigners have hit out at a Scottish brewery who have started selling a 40 per cent beer.

WEST, a Glasgow run firm, have started importing Schorschbock, the world’s strongest lager, from Germany.

The drink overtakes BrewDog’s Tactical Nuclear Penguin as the nation’s strongest beer.

BrewDog – a Fraserburgh brewery – faced similar criticism when it launched the 32 per cent beer last November.

WEST are selling the heavy brew in their award winning restaurant on Glasgow Green and insist they will limit sales of the lager to one measure per customer.

Health quango back-tracks on external PR contract

By Cara Sulieman

A SCOTTISH health quango has back-tracked on plans to hire an external public relations company after coming under fire from politicians.

NHS Health Scotland put out a tender worth £120,000 for a “public affairs agency” to help them get their message across at parliament.

But last week Labour MSP Richard Baker called for Audit Scotland to investigate the contract as he thought it was a waste of public money.

He said that ministers needed to “make sure they are getting their priorities right” and questioned the value for money of the contract.

And now the quango – responsible for organising national health campaigns – has cancelled the contract, saying very little about their decision only that they had decided to do it themselves.

Hundreds of psychiatric patients escaped

By Cara Sulieman

HUNDREDS of psychiatric patients have escaped from Scotland’s mental hospitals in the past five years.

The figures include 38 serious offenders who receiving treatment without time limit – including murderers and rapists – and 20 who were on remand.

The numbers have led to a call for the tightening of security at the institutions, with the Liberal Democrats calling it a “serious public safety issue”.

Among those escaped was killer James Cowen, who disappeared two years ago while on escorted leave from the Orchard Clinic, the secure unit of the Royal Edinburgh Hospital. The 36-year-old was sentenced to life in 1992.

Just five months earlier violent ex-heroin addict Mark Biggley escaped from Ayr’s Alisa Hospital for the fourth time.

Scottish politicians told they can claim back Remembrance Day wreaths on expenses

By Cara Sulieman

SCOTTISH politicians will be allowed to claim back the cost of Remembrance Day poppy wreaths on their expenses – despite a ruling banning Westminster MPs from doing the same.

The news comes just a week before the traditional services to pay tribute to the country’s fallen heroes.

The decision comes as a surprise as earlier this year fifteen MSPs were criticised for claiming back the wreaths as “running costs” last year.

Following a public outcry, all fifteen paid the money back.

Heartfelt tribute paid to Queen’s “debonair” former press secretary Michael Shea

By Rory Reynolds

THE FORMER presiding officer of the Scottish Parliament Lord Steel paid a touching tribute to the Queen’s former press secretary Michael Shea as he was laid to rest yesterday.

Lord Steel, the former leader of the Liberal Democrats, described how his life-long friend had touched the lives of everyone he met with his kindness and humour – including the Queen herself.

He described to a packed Warriston Crematorium in Edinburgh how he spoke to the head of state herself just after his friend’s death, saying that she was “saddened” by the news of Mr Shea’s death.

He said: “I know she was fond of him, because the Queen told me herself last week, ‘nobody told me he was ill’ – not the kind of remark you would expect of some routine ex-employee.”

“He leaves behind an extraordinary record of public service, a treasure trove of books, and a huge host of admiring friends and colleagues.

One in five people in Scotland fear they will become a victim of crime – ID theft and credit card fraud top list

by Cara Sulieman

SHOCK new figures released by the Scottish government today (Tues) show that one in five people are likely to be a victim of crime.

More than half of violent offences in Scotland is alcohol related, sparking calls from opposition parties for the government to crack down on “drink fuelled” crime.

But most Scots are still more worried about identity theft or having their credit cards ripped off, than being attacked.

The statistics were unveiled by Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill (right) as part of the official Scottish Crime and Justice Survey.

 They revealed that while the risk of becoming a victim of crime was generally lower north of the Border than in England and Wales, Scots are more at risk of suffering from violent crime.

Over one million crimes featured in the survey, but just 38 per cent of crimes were reported to police.

Jobs may go in Berwick

By Cara Sulieman

MORE jobs could go as another big name company considers scaling back their operations.

With 412 employees, Jus-Rol has been the largest employer in Berwick since 100 new jobs were created there three years ago.

But because of a lull in the frozen pastry market, the company behind the brand – General Mills – say they are considering down-sizing the plant.

A spokesman said that they would try a range of cost-saving measures before resorting to redundancies.

Brave troops caught up in political row

By ALEXANDER LAWRIE

A POLITICAL row has erupted after a Scots councillor demanded his local marine unit be saluted for their bravery.

The Royal Marines of Arbroath’s 45 Commando has just returned from a dangerous six-month tour of Afghanistan.

A motion was laid before Angus Council by the SNP’s Donald Morrison to honour the brave troops’ professionalism and heroism at a meeting on Wednesday.

But the idea has ignited a fierce cross-party battle between the Nats and the ruling Angus Alliance.

Ex-RAF serviceman and councilor Peter Nield has blasted the plan because it “does not recognise those servicemen and women from Angus who are in other theatres of active service”.