GOLF retailer Direct Golf is on the fairway for a record financial year after unveiling year-on-year sales growth for the ninth consecutive month.

Turnover at the group, which owns John Letters Golf, one of Scotland’s oldest golf club makers, lifted sales 27 per cent in June – giving it sales growth of 25 per cent for the financial year so far.

Including the final month of its previous financial year, Direct Golf, whose 20-plus outlets include sites in Edinburgh and Dundee, has registered ten months of successive growth. The company, which has announced plans to have 40 shops by 2018, was set up in 1991 by PGA Fellow professional John Andrew, who is due to attend the forthcoming St Andrews Open Championship week.

Andrew, who is also the owner of the company, said: “I’m delighted that Direct Golf is continuing to defy the overall downward trend in the golf industry while outperforming our competitors.

“It’s a very competitive marketplace and you have to get everything right to flourish and it’s testament to our staff and senior management team that we are able to be targeting continued growth of the business in this way.”

The group has said it will continue to invest in “bricks-and-mortar and online retailing”, with at least one more new outlet scheduled for 2015.

Earlier this year, the retailer, which claims to cut manufacturers’ recommended retail prices by up to 70 per cent, opened a new store in Southampton – its southern-most outlet.

More than 6,500 motorists UK-wide, including 288 in Scotland, are driving with more than 12 points on their licence, figures obtained from the DVLA have revealed.

A total of 6,523 drivers with more than 12 points – the usual limit before a driver is issued with a court driving ban – are still legally driving on Britain’s roads. Some have clocked up as many as 45 penalty points, yet are still allowed to drive.

The vast majority of drivers who clock up more than 12 points are banned from the road for a period, but legislation allows sheriffs and magistrates to retain a person’s entitlement to drive even if they have 12 or more points if it is considered that disqualification would cause “exceptional hardship”.

The figures, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act by The Co-operative Insurance, found that Glasgow has the highest number of these types of drivers in Scotland – though it is only ranked 42nd in the UK – with 57 drivers holding more than 12 points on their licence.

Edinburgh has 43 such drivers, while Kirkcaldy comes next in the list with 29. Even Kirkwall has two drivers currently on the roads with more than 12 points on their ­licences.

Philip Goose, senior community engagement officer at road safety charity Brake said: “It is outrageous that these individuals, who rack up offence after offence, are allowed to continue driving at enormous risk to the public.

“These individual have already had ample opportunity to desist breaking the law before reaching 12 points and facing disqualification.

“It’s time for the courts to get tough with these selfish, irresponsible and potentially deadly drivers, and put a stop to their illegal and dangerous driving before it results in a devastating crash.”

Drivers aged under 25 are the least likely to have 12 or more points, the research found, after people aged 55-plus.

Steve Kerrigan, head of telematics at The Co-operative Insurance, said: “It is clear that there are a large number of drivers on the roads with over 12 penalty points on their licences.

“Despite young drivers having the reputation for being the worst motorists, when it comes to the drivers that have an excessive amount of penalty points we have found that in majority of cases older drivers, aged 26 to 55, have more points than any other, and as a proportion of their age group.”

Two of the worst offenders in the UK are a female driver in Blackburn with 38 penalty points on her licence and a male driver in Liverpool who has 45 penalty points on his licence.

According to the government’s driving and transport department website, if a driver has 12 or more penalty points, they could be banned from driving for six months if they have received 12 penalty points or more within three years.

Someone who then has a second disqualification within three years could be banned from the road for 12 months, and there could be a two-year ban for anyone who faces a third disqualification.

A MOTORIST who killed a cyclist as she used her mobile phone while driving then deleted the incriminating call has been jailed for five years.

Julie Watson, 36, deleted a record of the call and only then phoned 999 in a bid to summon emergency services after she collided with Alistair Speed.

The mother-of-two was found guilty of causing the death by dangerous driving of Mr Speed, 49, on the A91 between Strathmiglo and Gateside, in Fife, in September 2013.

She was also convicted of attempting to defeat the ends of justice by deleting a record of a call she made just before the 999 call.

Watson, of Kinross, was on bail throughout her trial at the High Court in Edinburgh but after the jury returned unanimous guilty verdicts, the judge had told her she now had serious convictions.

Yesterday judge Lord Kinclaven jailed Watson for a total of five years at the High Court in Glasgow.

He told her: “You have demonstrated remorse which I accept is genuine for causing Mr Speed’s death and you are well aware of the devastation that has been caused to Mr Speed’s family and indeed all those who knew him.”

The judge said that while driving “the use of a mobile phone has the capacity to wreck lives and literally kill”.

He added: “Use of a hand-held mobile phone is in itself an unlawful act.

“The fact an offender is avoidably distracted by the use of a mobile phone when committing an offence of this sort will always make an offence more serious.” Watson was also disqualified from driving for ten years and will have to sit an extended driving test.

Mr Speed, a Tesco supervisor who lived in Glenrothes, Fife, died from severe head injuries in the incident.

He was a long-standing member of Fife Century Road Club and had taken part in his last event the previous day.

Mr Speed’s sister, Mhairi 
Laffoley, 48, said the effect of the incident on her family had been “horrendous”.

The court heard that Watson – who has two previous convictions for speeding – was driving her Vauxhall Corsa behind another car being driven by her mother.

After the incident, another driver who had stopped spoke to Watson and she said she did not know how she had hit the cyclist.

She said her mobile phone was in the pocket of her jeans and added: “The first time I took the phone out was to phone for an ambulance.”

But evidence showed that a phone call had been made shortly before the 999 call from the device.

Statins make women more aggressive but lower aggression in men, according to new research.

Hailed as wonder drugs, statins are widely used to manage blood cholesterol levels and reduce the risk of heart disease.

Previous studies raised questions about adverse changes in behaviour while on statins, such as irritability or violence, but the findings were inconsistent.

Now, in the first randomised trial to look at statin effects on behaviour, researchers found aggressive behaviour typically declined among men placed on statins, but increased among women on the drugs.

Lead author Professor Beatrice Golomb, of the San Diego School of Medicine at the University of California, said: “Many studies have linked low cholesterol to increased risk of violent actions and death from violence – defined as death from suicide, accident and homicide.

“There have been reports of some individuals developing irritability or aggression when placed on statins. Yet in contrast, clinical trials and analyses of statin use, in which most study participants were male, had not shown an overall tendency toward increased violent death.

“We wanted to better understand whether and how statins might affect aggression.”

The researchers randomly gave more than 1,000 men and post-menopausal women either a statin (simvastatin or pravastatin) or a placebo for six months.

Neither researchers nor trial participants knew who was receiving the drug or the placebo.

Aggression was measured using a weighted tally of actual aggressive acts against others, self or objects in the prior week.

Other measurements taken included testosterone levels and reported sleep problems.

Prof Golomb said simvastatin is known to affect both measures, and both testosterone and sleep can affect aggression.

The results, published online by the journal PLOS ONE, showed that for post-menopausal women, the typical effect was increased aggression.

The effect was significant for post-menopausal women older than 45.

Doctors said the increase in aggression, compared to the placebo, appeared stronger in women who began with lower aggression before the trial. Prof Golomb said that the picture was more complex in men.

Three male participants who took statins displayed very large increases in aggression.

When the three were included in the analysis, they cancelled out an average drop in aggression.

But when they were removed from the analysis, the decline in aggressive behaviour for male statin-users was significant.

Prof Golomb said the effects were stronger among younger men who tended to be more aggressive, but he added: “Actually, the effect was most evident in less aggressive men.”

Prof Golomb said a full set of biological explanations linking statins to behaviour remains a “work in progress”.

VOLUNTARY approach is not enough if Nicola Sturgeon’s ambition of boardroom 50:50 by 2020 is to be realised, says Dr Matthew Dutton.

There is a change taking place in the boardroom. Women are breaking through to occupy seats once held by men. But change has been slow. Is it time to consider quotas as a way of delivering equality?

The UK government has resisted the use of legislation to enforce gender equality in the boardroom. Instead it has backed voluntary measures proposed by Lord Mervyn Davies, the former Labour trade minister, to set a target for FTSE 100 companies to have women in 25 per cent of board roles. It seems likely that the target will be met this year. Women now hold 23.5 per cent of FTSE 100 directorships. This is up from 12 per cent when Lord Davies published his first report in 2011.

Many will see this as a vindication of the voluntary approach under which Lord Davies produced annual reports of progress towards the 25 per cent target. Companies deemed to be falling short of this target were named and shamed.

But look at the bigger picture. Female rates of participation in the labour market have increased to an all-time high. Across the UK, 66 per cent of working age women are in employment. In Scotland, the figure is marginally higher. And yet high participation rates are not feeding through to the most senior levels. Only 8 per cent of chairs and executive directors on FTSE 100 boards are female.

Many European countries have tired of the slow pace of change and have introduced laws that require companies to enforce a minimum quota for the number of women on boards. In May, Germany passed laws that will require the largest companies to reserve 30 per cent of boardroom seats for women. The move by Germany to introduce quotas comes after Norway, Spain, France, Italy and Belgium had already done so. On the European continent, legislation has been embraced as an effective way to bring about change that social and voluntary pressure had failed to deliver.

In November 2014 Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP First Minister, announced a cabinet with a 50/50 gender balance. The First Minster stated that the creation of a gender balanced Cabinet was “a clear demonstration that this government will work hard in all areas to promote women, to create gender equality and it sends out a strong message that the business of redressing the gender balance in public life starts right here in government”.

The Scottish Government has set a target of achieving 50 per cent gender equality in the boardroom by 2020 (50:50 by 2020). However, of the 23 FTSE 350 companies based in Scotland, the percentage of women on boards is 16.9 per cent. If the 50 per cent target is to be met, the rate at which women are entering the boards of Scottish companies needs to accelerate rapidly.

Whilst the government has introduced voluntary measures such as the Scottish Business Pledge that includes a commitment to make progress on gender diversity and gender balance, there is a growing sense that if the government is to achieve its targets it will have to look to the European legislative model to bring about change in the boardroom.

This move would set the Scottish Government on a different course from the UK Government that has backed a voluntary approach. However the Equality and Human Rights Commission has questioned the legality of quotas and laws to enforce boardroom equality would require powers to be transferred from Westminster.

Research by the Employment Research Institute at Edinburgh Napier University published by the Scottish Government outlined the rationale for greater gender diversity in the boardroom. There is evidence that gender balanced boards are better able to understand the needs of clients and are more open to a wider pool of talent. Predominantly male boards are, after all, selecting members from only half the talent pool and enforcing a view among senior female colleagues that they are unlikely to be considered for board roles.

The Scottish Government’s rationale for gender equality in the boardroom goes deeper than commercial motives. Equality is embedded in the government’s economic strategy: “reducing inequality is not only important in itself, but is vital to creating the conditions to deliver sustainable economic growth over the long term”. Inequality, of which low levels of female representation on boards is one indicator, is viewed as a constraint on economic growth.

The government will need to find a way of increasing the number of women in the boardroom to show it is making progress on tackling inequality and promoting economic growth. Given that voluntary approaches to improving gender diversity in the boardroom have failed to achieve anywhere near the targets set out under the 50:50 by 2020 target, Holyrood may be looking increasingly to Europe and not London for guidance on what works to increase gender diversity in the boardroom.

If the First Minister is to realise her hope of creating a Scotland in which “no young girl should grow up in 2015 with the prospect of facing a glass ceiling that limits their ambitions”, she should not rely on the glacial pace of social change and voluntary measures.

• Dr Matthew Dutton is a Senior Research Fellow at the Employment Research Institute at Edinburgh Napier University

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China passed sweeping legislation yesterday that reinforces government controls over cyberspace, as the nation’s leaders try to address what they see as growing threats to computer networks and national security.

The vaguely worded National Security Law is one of several new regulatory moves by China that worry privacy advocates and have foreign businesses concerned about potential harm to their operations inside the country.

The law calls for strengthened management over the web and tougher measures against online attacks, theft of secrets, and the spread of illegal or harmful information. It said core information technology, critical infrastructure and important systems and data must be “secure and controllable” in order to protect China’s sovereignty over its ­cyberspace.

The law offered no details on how China would achieve the goals, although a vast government internet monitoring system has been in place for years.

China says it is a major target of hacking and other cyberattacks, and the ruling Communist Party has expended vast efforts in blocking online content it deems subversive or illegal.

China is also accused of running a state-sponsored effort to hack computers and steal government and commercial secrets overseas, while also spying on and harassing pro-democracy, Tibetan and human rights groups based abroad.

Most recently, Beijing was suspected of being behind a hack into a US federal government computer server that resulted in the theft of personnel and security clearance records of 14 million employees and contractors. Chinese officials always deny engaging in such actions.

The National Security Law, passed overwhelmingly by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, replaces a law that focused more narrowly on counter-espionage.

In addition to cyberspace, the new legislation covers a wide range of areas including the economy, social stability, territorial integrity, the military, culture, finance, technology, the environment and food safety.

A spokeswoman said an overarching legislation was needed to deal with “ever-growing security challenges”.

“Externally speaking, the country must defend its sovereignty, as well as security 
and development interests, and it must also maintain political security and social stability,” she added.

The new law is an extension of the hard line on security and repeated warnings against foreign ideological subversion issued by the government of president Xi Jinping, who in 2013 established an overarching National Security Commission to co-ordinate such efforts with him as chairman.

A separate anti-terrorism proposal could require network operators and service providers fighting for a share of China’s $465 billion (£297bn) technology market to build in “backdoors” for government ­surveillance.

Prestwick Airport has started the search for a new chief financial officer after Grant McLeod decided to step down in search of “new opportunities”.

McLeod, a veteran of the travel industry, has spent more than five years with the South Ayrshire facility, which is now in public hands.

He was a member of the senior management team that was involved in negotiations leading to the Scottish Government’s purchase of Prestwick for just £1 in November 2013.

The airport was put up for sale by owner New Zealand firm Infratil, after incurring annual losses of £2 million.

McLeod will leave the company in September after the completion of key financial planning and reporting objectives, and Prestwick said that the process to recruit his successor has already started.

“I’ve enjoyed my time at Prestwick Airport but I believe it is now the right time for me to move on and focus on new opportunities,” McLeod said.

Chief executive Iain Cochrane said: “My colleagues and I are grateful to Grant for his contribution to the airport since joining us in 2010.

“He has supported Prestwick in challenging times and we wish him well in the future.”

The Scottish Government, which bought the airport to prevent closure and job losses, has so far committed to providing more than £25m in loan funding, with auditors stating earlier this year that another £15m was likely to be needed before it is handed over to new private owners.

Mark Rogerson has quit after just 18 months as chief executive of Speedy Hire following a profit warning from the tool hire specialist.

The group said results for its new financial year would be “materially” lower than both the board’s hopes and its figures for 2015, when underlying earnings rose 5.8 per cent to £72.7 million.

Its slower-than-expected start of the year was blamed on a lack of available equipment during an overhaul of its branch network and “poor customer service” due to disruption caused by an IT system upgrade.

Speedy also said that a focus on major customer accounts at the expense of small firms had contributed to its poor revenue performance .

Chairman Jan Åstrand said: “This is extremely disappointing. I believe that Speedy remains a fundamentally good business but, whilst some progress has been made over the last year, the remedial action programmes have not been delivered as needed.”

He added: “Our immediate priority is to accelerate the execution of those programmes and realise the upside we believe they will deliver over the medium term. Additionally, we will increase our focus on the SME core hire market.”

Following the departure of Rogerson – who was promoted to chief executive from the role of chief operating officer at the start of last year – Åstrand has assumed the role of executive chairman but will revert to a non-executive position when Speedy posts its first-half results in November.

Merseyside-based Speedy Hire, which was founded in 1977, said that group finance director Russell Down has been appointed chief executive with immediate effect and will also retain the finance role until his replacement is appointed.

The group’s alert, which saw nearly a third of its stock market value wiped off, came just days after rival HSS Hire also warned over profits, in a move that sent its shares slumping by more than a quarter. HSS said on Monday that weak orders over the last few months from key accounts meant its six-month earnings would not top last year.

PRESIDENT Barack Obama announced yesterday that the US and Cuba will reopen their embassies in Havana and Washington, heralding a “new chapter” in relations after a half-century of hostility.

The embassy agreement marks the biggest tangible step toward normalising relations since the surprise announcement in December that the two countries were restarting diplomatic ties. The posts in Washington and Havana are scheduled to open on 20 July, Cuba’s foreign ministry said.

“We don’t have to be imprisoned by the past,” Mr Obama said at the White House. “Americans and Cubans alike are ready to move forward.”

Cuban television broadcast Mr Obama’s statement live, underscoring the new spirit.

Secretary of state John Kerry will travel to Cuba for the opening of the US embassy.

For Mr Obama, ending the US freeze with Cuba is central to his foreign policy legacy as he nears the end of his presidency. Mr Obama has long touted the value of direct engagement with global foes and has argued that the US economic embargo on the communist island just 90 miles south of Florida was ineffective.

The president yesterday reiterated his call for Congress to lift the embargo, which he said has failed to bring political change in Cuba. However, he faces stiff resistance from Republicans, as well as some Democrats, who say he is prematurely rewarding a government that engages in serious human rights abuses.

Republican Congressman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said opening a US embassy in Cuba “will do nothing to help the Cuban people and is just another trivial attempt for President Obama to go legacy shopping”.

The president will also face strong opposition in Congress to spending any of taxpayers’ money on building or refurbishing an embassy in Havana. Congress would have to approve any administration request to spend money on an embassy.

The US cut off diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1961, the year Mr Obama was born, after Fidel Castro’s revolution. The US spent decades trying to either actively overthrow the Cuban government or isolate the island, including toughening the economic embargo first imposed by president Dwight D Eisenhower.

Since the late 1970s, the US and Cuba have operated diplomatic missions called interest sections in each other’s capitals. The missions are technically under the protection of Switzerland, and do not enjoy the same status as embassies.

Ahead of Mr Obama’s remarks, the top US diplomat in Havana delivered a letter from the White House to Cuba about restoring embassies in the countries’ respective capitals. US interests section chief Jeffrey DeLaurentis arrived at the Cuban foreign ministry in Havana yesterday morning to hand-deliver the message.

EVENTS, birthdays and anniversaries on July 2.

1266: By the Treaty of Perth, Norway renounced its claim on the Hebrides.

1644: Scottish forces under David Leslie helped the victory of the Parliamentary forces over Royalists at the Battle of Marston Moor near York. The Cromwellian victory under Prince Rupert was the turning point in the Civil War.

1645: The Marquis of Montrose defeated Lieutenant-General Baillie at the Battle of Alford, in which Lord Gordon was killed.

1681: The Earl of Shaftesbury was arrested for high treason. The Grand Jury threw out the charges but, upon release, he feared further arrest and fled to the Netherlands.

1687: King James II disbanded parliament.

1843: An alligator fell from the sky during a thunderstorm in Charleston, Sough Carolina.

1865: Former Methodist minister William Booth and his wife Catherine founded the Salvation Army, initially known as the East London Christian Mission.

1881: James Garfield, 20th United States president, was shot by Charles Guiteau in Washington DC. He died on 19 September.

1900: The second Olympic Games opened in Paris.

1900: Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin flew his first airship from a field on the outskirts of Berlin.

1928: By the Representation of the People Act, the British parliament reduced the age at which women could vote to 21.

1937: Aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan disappeared over the Pacific Ocean during an attempted circumnavigation of the globe.

1940: Adolf Hitler ordered the invasion of Britain (Operation Sealion).

1940: The Vichy government was formed after the collapse of France, with Henri Pétain as head of state.

1940: More than 440 interned Italians, many from families settled in Scotland, drowned when a German submarine sank British prison ship Arandora Star on her way to Canada.

1966: France exploded an atomic bomb at a Pacific atoll in the first of a series of six tests.

1968: An Israeli Al Al airliner, flying from Rome to Tel Aviv, was hijacked and diverted to Algeria by three armed members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

1971: The Erskine Bridge over the River Clyde was opened.

1990: Failure of a ventilation system in the pedestrian tunnel linking holy city of Mecca and tent city caused a stampede in which 1,400 pilgrims died.

2001: Barry George was jailed for life at the Old Bailey for the murder of the television presenter Jill Dando on the doorstep of her home in west London in 1999. His conviction was judged unsafe by the Court of Appeal and was quashed in 2007. After a retrial, on 1 August, 2008, he was found not guilty and freed.

2002: Steve Fossett, an American millionaire businessman, became the first person to fly a balloon solo round the world. In February 2008, five months after he and his light aircraft went missing on a flight in Nevada, a Chicago court declared him officially dead.

2008: Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages held by Farc guerrillas, were rescued by the Colombian armed forces.

2014: Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was charged with corruption by French prosecutors.

BIRTHDAYS

Lindsay Lohan, actress, 29; Jerry Hall, actress and model, 59; Kenneth Clarke, MP, chancellor of the Exchequer 1993-7, Secretary of State for Justice, Lord Chancellor 2010-2012, 75; Peter Kay, actor and comedian, 42; Mark Kermode, film critic, 52; James Mackay, Baron Mackay of Clashfern KT, Lord High Chancellor 1987-97, 88; David Anthony Llewellyn Owen, Baron Owen, foreign secretary 1977-80, 77; George Simpson, Baron Simpson of Dunkeld, chief executive, Marconi 1996-2001, 73; Pierre Cardin, fashion designer, 93; Larry David, comedian, actor, Gillian Philip, Glasgow-born author, 51; Imelda Marcos, politician and widow of former Philippines president Ferdinand Marcos, 86.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1489 Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury; 1819 Thomas Anderson, Scottish chemist; 1877 Hermann Hesse, Nobel Prize-winning poet and novelist; 1903 Alec Douglas-Home, Lord Home of the Hirsel, British prime minister 1963-64; 1903 King Olav V of Norway; 1904 René Lacoste, tennis champion, businessman and shirt designer.

Deaths: 862 Saint Swithun; 1566 Nostradamus, astrologer; 1778 Jean-Jacques Rousseau, philosopher; 1850 Sir Robert Peel, conservative prime minister and creator of the modern police force; 1937 Amelia Earhart, aviator; 1961 Ernest Hemingway, novelist; 1973 Betty Grable, actress; 1977 Vladimir Nabokov, novelist; 1991 Lee Remick, actress; 1997 James Stewart, actor; 1999 Mario Puzo, author of The Godfather; 2010 Dame Beryl Bainbridge DBE, novelist.

Venerable Edinburgh jeweller Laing is investing £1.3 million on the move to a flagship store in the city.

Owner and chairman Michael Laing said the relocation from Frederick Street to George Street was “the fulfilment of a dream”.

Work on refurbishing the George Street site, previously occupied by Barclays Bank, will begin next month.

Laing said: “This property is the perfect setting for us.

“We have been looking for the right location for Laing on George Street for many years now, but suitable properties don’t often come onto the market.

“This is one of the most significant corner sites in the city – we see huge potential for this property as it’s very much a blank canvas at the moment. It also gives us the opportunity to bring back some of the Georgian grandeur that you would expect in a World Heritage site.”

Laing’s watch boutique will remain at its separate showroom on Frederick Street.

The firm, Scotland’s oldest family jeweller, also has stores in Cardiff and Southampton which operate under the Parkhouse brand.

ENCOURAGING obesity in old age is not a way to save the NHS money, writes Mike Lean.

Allan Massie opines that we should encourage people to become fat and to smoke as it will save scarce NHS funds when they die young (The Scotsman, 10 June).

Many analyses confirm how obesity aggravates a host of chronic secondary diseases, quality of life and healthcare costs. None has remotely suggested that obesity improves anything, reflecting experiences of doctors, and the multiple chronic symptoms of obese people.

Massie declares the government prediction of 36 per cent obesity-prevalence in 2015 to be a lie. The 2013 Scottish Health Survey shows 27 per cent of all Scots to be obese according to BMI. However, many more with a “non-obese” BMI are “over-fat”, using a waist circumference measurement, a better guide to fatness and ill health than BMI. Currently 29 per cent of men and 47 per cent of women in more socially deprived families have worryingly elevated waist size.

Earlier predictions did not appreciate how greater inactivity would cause muscle wasting with age, so weight and BMI do not increase, even when people are getting fatter. Less muscle will promote more diabetes, more falls and more hip fractures, and thus more costs, to add to fatigue, arthritis, physical disability and depression.

Some 40 per cent of all Scots become obese by 65, and 70 per cent of them have secondary, chronic (and expensive) diseases. NHS spending doubles as BMI goes up from 20 (healthy) to 40 (severely obese).

It will be exciting to see how far Simon Stevens’s planned NHS programmes against obesity and diabetes can go in England, but we Scots have a record of leading the way in major public health improvements, including banning smoking in public places and moves to minimum pricing of alcohol.

Last week a meeting at the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh discussed innovative approaches to prevent and manage obesity. By working together we can protect our NHS with effective obesity prevention measures in Scotland. If there some necessary actions are uncomfortable for the food industry, it would be good to avoid spreading misinformation. The media, including The Scotsman, where many people obtain what they believe to be facts, can play valuable parts.

• Mike Lean is professor of human nutrition at the University of Glasgow

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THIRD sector has more options to help people, says Celia Tennant.

The lines between investing for profit and investing in a social business or charity for a social return are blurring – with similar approaches being applied to both. New social investment initiatives and vehicles will hopefully bring new funding and opportunities for the third sector, and this has the potential to be really exciting. Charities more in charge of their own destiny, less reliant on external factors and funding and delivering more social impact.

Of course, social investment won’t be right for all charities and not all charities should be forced to divert their time to consider this. For many of the 23,000 Scottish registered charities, grant funding and donations will remain their lifeline. However, for others with potential, support should be given to help explore ways of diversifying income, becoming more business-like, both in mind and behaviour. By doing this, we will create a strong pipeline of investment-ready charities.

In Scotland, I am pleased that venture philanthropy has a role in doing just this. To explain its origins, venture philanthropy began in the United States in the 1990s before moving into Europe. It initially established itself in the financial sector, born from the venture capital world. As well as introducing venture capital principles, it also brought a new type of donor, and with it, new money to do good. Since then, it’s evolved and grown from the purest of models. However, the principles of using financial and non-financial support to build stronger social organisations, in order to increase their societal impact, remain at the core at all times.

Inspiring Scotland, a Scottish model of venture philanthropy, was launched seven years ago in response to the needs of the Scottish sector.

We provide the sector with longer-term investment and intensive bespoke development support to help organisations become more sustainable, more accountable and, eventually, better at what it does, delivering even greater social impact.

One organisation which has lived the venture philanthropy experience and undergone significant transformation is Callander Youth Project Trust (CYPT).

Prior to Inspiring Scotland investment, seven years ago, it was operating out of a room in the local high school. In 2012 the trust took a big step and secured the Bridgend House Hotel in order to establish a rural training hub for young people.

The development was not just a nice thing to do. It was vital in the long term vision for the trust and one of the key milestones in its journey towards longer-term sustainability. It was a venture which needed to make a profit, while at the same time fulfil its social aims.

The town of Callander is well known for its hospitality and tourism. However, many young people, especially those who are furthest removed from the labour market, were not securing employment.

CYPT engaged with employers to develop a strategy to up-skill local young people and re-balance the skills deficit in the local area. Three years on, and the trust has developed an entrepreneurial and business attitude enabling it to launch a number of innovative social enterprises that train young people and raise an income to support the organisation.

The Bridgend Café was launched in 2013 offering locally sourced and often home-grown produce in the community café. The trust matured to be able to use other social investment funding, such as Triodos Bank and Social Investment Scotland and as a result CYPT opened the five-star Callander Hostel as its flagship social enterprise in 2014.

CYPT has taken an entrepreneurial and innovative approach in raising money to become self-financing. All of this effort is to create opportunities for young people. Venture philanthropy has been alongside Callander Youth Project throughout this journey, both challenging, enabling and supporting.

Venture philanthropy may not suit every organisation, but it is one tool in the tool box in Scotland. I am encouraged by the new initiatives coming in to the sector, such as social investment tax relief (SITR), bringing new investment and helping to create a healthy funding ecosystem. However, what we need to keep at the forefront of our minds, is we are in the business of making a difference to people’s lives, and the social impact needs to remain the most important factor.

• Celia Tennant is chief executive of Inspiring Scotland www.inspiringscotland.org.uk

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ONE OF Scotland’s largest councils requires a “great deal more improvement”, despite already having made significant changes to how it operates, public spending watchdogs said

Aberdeen City Council has made progress since a damning report was published some seven years, according to the Accounts Commission.

But in its latest report on the authority, it stated: “There is a great deal more improvement to be delivered and consolidated.”

The commission said it was “encouraged by the council’s self-awareness in recognising how it needs to improve” and said its priority must be to “continue its momentum” and make further progress.

In May 2008 the commission published a report on the local authority which “found that the council faced extremely serious challenges and was in a precarious financial position”.

This highlighted ‘’extremely serious’’ problems with the council’s management, finances and some services, and also said there appeared to be a ‘’fundamental morale problem’’ among many of the workers.

Accounts Commission chair Douglas Sinclair said today: “There are positive signs of improvement in Aberdeen and we’re encouraged by the council’s self-awareness in recognising how it needs to improve.

“However, it still has much more to do to secure the wider improvements it seeks in the longer-term.”

The council has “changed significantly”, according to the report, having “streamlined its organisational structures, put robust medium-term budget planning in place and dealt with the serious financial deficit it faced”.

The make-up of the council administration changed in 2012, with local government elections bringing in a Labour-Conservative-independent coalition, while the current chief executive has been in place for a year and is “putting a significant programme of improvement actions in place”.

But while the council has an agreed vision, the commission said this was “not supported by a clear set of objectives and targets”, stating that it needed to ensure its priorities and its plans are better connected.

Councillors also need to be provided with consistent information on how services are being provided, to help improve scrutiny.

Plans for systematic monitoring of arms-length external organisations (ALEOs) which run council services should be implemented, with the amount of spending that goes through such organisations having increased from less than 1% of the revenue budget in 2009/10 to almost 9% 2014/15.

Jenny Laing, leader of Aberdeen City Council, said: “The Accounts Commission has acknowledged the significant progress made in the financial management of the council and our recent budget surplus is evidence that improvement is well under way and beginning to benefit the city.

“There is more to be done and that is why we will be investing heavily in the future of our city through the recently-agreed 20-year city centre masterplan which seeks to transform for the better the way we live and work in Aberdeen.”

The taxpayer stake in Lloyds Banking Group has fallen to below 16 per cent after the UK government sold another tranche of shares in the lender.

The sale of almost 691 million shares, reducing the state’s holding to 15.9 per cent, will have raised about £600 million for the Treasury.

George Osborne said in his Mansion House speech last month that he wants to return Lloyds to the private sector over the coming year.

The Chancellor is also planning to kick-start the sale of shares in Royal Bank of Scotland, which is 79 per cent owned by the taxpayer.

Budget airline Ryanair today said it efforts to improve customer service helped to propel passenger numbers sharply higher last month.

The Irish carrier said traffic soared 14 per cent to 9.5 million customers, while its load factor – a measure of how full its planes were – increased to 93 per cent, up from 88 per cent a year ago.

Chief marketing officer Kenny Jacobs said: “Ryanair customers can now look forward to further service enhancements, as we roll out year two of our “always getting better” programme in 2015.”

Initiatives being rolled out include revamped cabin interiors, improved in-flight menus, a new website and app and lower fees.

THE retail group behind Carphone Warehouse and PC World has unveiled plans to launch up to 500 stores across the US under a tie-up with telecoms firm Sprint.

Dixons Carphone said its Connected World Services (CWS) division has agreed to open and manage a “significant” number of stores under the banner of Sprint, the third-largest mobile operator in the US.

In the initial phase, Dixons Carphone will supply its “mobile phone retail expertise” to Sprint, which will open about 20 stores. If these prove to be successful, the pair will move to the second phase, with CWS investing equally with Sprint in a joint venture to support the rollout of up to 500 stores.

During the second phase, Dixons Carphone will invest up to $32 million (£20.5m) for a 50 per cent interest in the venture, while Dixons Carphone will also provide support to Sprint.

CWS chief executive Andrew Harrison said: “This is a very exciting venture for us, and is a significant step in growing our CWS business in the US. We bring specialist knowledge and skills to this partnership and will be looking to deliver innovation and outstanding customer service under the Sprint brand.”

Dixons Carphone was formed in August last year by the merger of Carphone Warehouse with the owner of Currys and PC World.

SCOTLAND’s main educational and cultural bodies will be asked to demonstrate how effectively they are spending public money by a Holyrood Committee.

Creative Scotland, Education Scotland, the Scottish Qualifications Authority, Skills Development Scotland and the Scottish Funding Council are to be scrutinised by the Scottish Parliament’s Education and Culture Committee.

With budgets ranging from £40 million to over £1 billion, the public bodies help to deliver key Scottish Government priorities in areas such as educational attainment, curriculum for excellence, training, culture and youth employment.

The Committee will scrutinise spending decisions and outcomes the bodies have delivered during a series of evidence sessions that will explore how the organisations help to deliver tangible improvements to key public services.

Committee Convener, Stewart Maxwell MSP, said: “There are a range of public bodies working in Scotland’s cultural and educational landscape. It is important that we understand the impact of these organisations, the value they add and how effectively they work together.

“We will be looking at their strategic objectives as well as how transparent they are in reporting on their work. The bodies play a major role in public life and it is important that they demonstrate how effectively they are spending public money.

“It is important we ask the difficult questions to a range of these bodies. This will allow us to better understand the functions and how they work, both individually and together. We will follow up with the Scottish Government the key points that emerge from our discussions.”

The Committee today issued a call for submissions on each of the organisations, covering themes such as the tangible benefits Creative Scotland has achieved as a result of its funding structure and the relationship between Education Scotland and schools and local authorities.

It has written to the five bodies to invite them to submit written information before they provide oral evidence.

Five separate meetings will be held with the organisations in autumn 2015, before the Scottish Government publishes its 2016-17 Draft Budget.

Drinks group C&C today said it had suffered weaker-than-expected trading in the first quarter following the introduction of tougher drink-drive limits in Scotland.

The Tennent’s owner also said in a trading update that its core markets of Ireland and Scotland were hit by unseasonably cold and wet weather in May.

“The recent tightening of ‘drink-driving’ regulation in Scotland adds to the challenges already faced by the on-premise channel and rural/community pubs appear to have been disproportionately affected,” Dublin-based C&C said.

Its statement, covering the three months to the end of May, came the day after Belhaven Best owner Greene King said the change in law had knocked like-for-like sales in its core business by 0.5 per cent in the first eight weeks of its new financial year.

The Scottish Government launched the crackdown in December, limiting drivers to having 50mg of alcohol in their blood, down from 80mg, making it lower than the rest of the UK.

C&C, which also owns the Magners and Gaymers cider brands, said: “Following weaker-than-expected trading conditions in the first quarter, we anticipate a gradual improvement in core market performance as the year progresses. In the US and other export markets, a return to growth is the target.”

A FERRY carrying 189 passengers and crew capsized yesterday minutes after it left a central Philippine port in choppy waters, leaving at least 35 dead and 20 others missing, coast guard officials said.

They said at least 134 people from the M/B Kim Nirvana were rescued by nearby fishing boats and coast guard personnel or swam to safety off Ormoc city on Leyte Island.

Coast guard spokesman Armand Balilo said the wooden outrigger ferry was leaving Ormoc for the Camotes Islands, about 27 miles to the south, when it was lashed by strong waves.

He said the captain and some of the crew were rescued and are in custody pending an investigation. Coast guard officials and survivors said it wasn’t immediately clear what caused the 36-ton ferry, carrying a heavy cargo of construction materials and bags of rice, to overturn.

Survivors said that the bow suddenly rose from the water before the vessel flipped over on one side, turning it upside down and trapping passengers underneath.

Among the passengers who survived were at least three Americans and a Canadian.

Lawrence Drake, 48, a retired firefighter from Rochester, New York, said he was able to revive a woman who wasn’t breathing while they were in the water via mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Mr Drake said he also saved the woman’s pregnant daughter and an eight-year-old boy. He said he saw at least seven bodies floating in the water, including two children.

Many of the passengers were screaming in panic, he said.

Mr Drake’s Filipino wife, Mary Jane, said the ferry was pulling slowly out of the port when it suddenly flipped to the left in strong waves.

“No-one was able to jump out because it overturned very swiftly. There was no time to jump,” she said.

TV footage showed coast guard rescuers and army soldiers carrying survivors from rubber boats to a beach. Not far away, the bottom part of the vessel could be seen protruding from the water.

A rescue leader, Ciriaco Tolibao, said army frogmen and coast guard divers were searching the overturned boat to find more survivors or retrieve bodies. The search was continuing into the night, Mr Balilo said.

Cloudy weather at the time of the accident did not pose any danger that would have prompted the coast guard to stop sea voyages, officials said.

A brewing storm in the Pacific was 344 miles east of Ormoc and was too far away to affect any part of the Philippine archipelago, according to forecasters. They said winds in the Ormoc region were not strong enough to whip up dangerous waves.

Ormoc, a regional economic and transportation hub of about 200,000 people, is located in a disaster-prone eastern region that is regularly hit by some of the approximately 20 tropical storms and typhoons that blow in from the Pacific each year.

The city was among those devastated by Typhoon Haiyan, one of the most ferocious storms on record to hit land, which left more than 7,300 dead and missing and leveled entire villages in November 2013.