Still friends. Prince William attended the wedding of his first serious girlfriend, Rose Farquhar, to George Gemmell on Saturday, December 17.
29.11.2022 - 08:05 / dailyrecord.co.uk
A shortage of accommodation is expected to see Scotland take 2,000 fewer asylum seekers than originally proposed.
The new plan would also see far fewer councils take part in the dispersal scheme.
Green MSP Ross Greer said: "This latest failure from the infamously cruel and incompetent UK Home Office is no surprise. The department has proven time and again that it doesn’t care about the impact of its brutal ‘hostile environment’ on vulnerable asylum seekers."
Only a handful of councils host asylum seekers in Scotland with Glasgow taking the biggest amount by far.
The dispersal programme is run by the Home Office, which contracts private firm Mears to provide accommodation.
Under a new ‘whole Scotland’ approach, nearly every council was to be part of a programme that would allocate an extra 4,000 bed spaces.
But a paper by council umbrella group COSLA has revealed the plans look likely to be dramatically scaled back.
While COSLA’s approach was based on the involvement of all thirty two councils, the paper said Mears’ proposal is for just fifteen.
“This clearly created an imbalanced picture and deviated significantly from the principle of proportionality that was central to the COSLA approach.”
It added: “Mears indicated that the provision of an additional c. 4000 bedspaces was not achievable within the timeframes set by the Home Office, and that c. 2000 was a more realistic target.
“They also suggested that it was not operationally feasible, or desirable, to move to a 32 council model over a short period of time and that they wished to focus on a smaller number of council areas.”
Greer said: “Companies like Mears should not be profiting from the misery at the heart of the system. This privatised approach is not just deeply unethical,
Still friends. Prince William attended the wedding of his first serious girlfriend, Rose Farquhar, to George Gemmell on Saturday, December 17.
Jeremy Clarkson has come under fire over a rant about Meghan Markle in his column in which he said he hates her more than serial killer Rose West.
An amber weather warning for snow has been issued in parts of Scotland today as the freezing cold weather shows no signs of easing off.
Scots have been warned that the recent freezing temperatures are likely to continue until the end of the week with power cuts likely to hit more homes.
New figures released today show Scotland's poverty-related education attainment gap remains well above pre-coronavirus pandemic levels.
A North Face hoodie for teenagers is being urgently recalled due to a "risk of strangulation".
An Ayrshire chef has reached the grand final of MasterChef after a tense week including 'sleepless nights'.
Stephen Flynn is set to face Rishi Sunak in his first Prime Minister's Questions since being elected the SNP's new Westminster leader.
Police officers in the UK are being targeted as a part of a recruitment drive by Australian law enforcement, leading to fears of a 'drain' on Police Scotland. Western Australia Police Force has launched a campaign specifically looking for applicants from the UK, Ireland and New Zealand.
Cops have locked down the Christmas Market at St Enoch Square in Glasgow after it was rocked by an explosion.
Thousands of passengers at Glasgow Airport are anxiously awaiting updates after being left ‘freezing’ in a car park amid a ‘suspicious’ item scare. Emergency services were called to the scene in the security hall shortly before 6am on Monday, December 5, when concerns were raised over a passenger’s bag.
Roll up, roll up, Insiders. The Deadline International team have once again been travelling the world to bring you the latest news and analysis from the global film and TV biz, with Mel and Zac both in the Middle East. Max and I actually found the TV world descending on London for once, so we didn’t have to go so far for access. Read on.
Screen Scotland, a national funding body, today announced that it has acquired the intellectual property rights to the Edinburgh International Film Festival and has launched an appraisal period to explore the possibilities of hosting a film festival in Edinburgh in 2023.
An expert has shared why parents shouldn't put a duvet over their baby to keep them warm this winter.
A record number of people have died while serving time in prison across Scotland in the last three years, according to a new report from Glasgow University.
Millions of Scottish people will be celebrating St Andrew's Day today.
A frantic search is underway to trace a Polish man who has been missing in Scotland for three days.
A premature Scots baby who defied odds after being given just one day to live has switched on the Christmas lights at the hospital where he spent the last year. Hector Tully was born at just 23 weeks on November 12 2021, weighing less than a bag of sugar at 655 grams.
Those who want a real Christmas tree are being urged to order them as soon as possible due to shortages.
The body of a 47-year-old man was found in a flat in Clydebank yesterday.