SCOTTISH Secretary David Mundell has pledged to bring major changes to the Scotland Bill in a move that is the first suggestion by the UK Government that the legislation falls short of the all-party Smith Commission proposals.

During exchanges in Scottish questions Mr Mundell also promised he would bring the changes at the next stage of the Bill in the Commons after criticisms over his plans to do most of the work in the Lords.

However, the Scottish Secretary, who is still in negotiations with the Scottish Government, refused to rule out bringing changes in the Lords despite objections from the SNP on its “unelected” status.

His willingness to make concessions came as Labour shadow Scottish Secretary Ian Murray called for greater controls on welfare for Holyrood, as he revealed figures from the Commons Library which suggest that 136,800 families in Scotland will lose an average £1,859 as a result of Chancellor George Osborne’s cut to working tax credits in the Budget.

Despite being pressed on where he will make concessions, Mr Mundell refused to say which changes he plans.

However, he told MPs: “It is my intention to make substantive changes to the Scotland when it comes back at Report Stage.”

He said that he had “noted” the amendments put down at committee stage by Opposition parties and “will reflect on them all” and decide which changes to bring in.

He added: “Some of the Labour amendments were sensible and constructive and some were put down for party political reasons. I will look at all amendments and sort out the wheat from the chaff.”

But on the SNP’s amendment he mocked the Nationalists for putting forward an amendment to devolve national insurance but “none of them speaking to support it”.

He added: “I want a debate on the substance. I don’t want stunts, soundbites and press releases.”

CONCERNS over “unacceptable” sickness levels at the police service centre which took the ill-fated call about the M9 crash tragedy have been raised by opposition leaders.

Staff were also working thousands of hours in overtime in the months before the fatal accident which led to the deaths of two people, Scottish Police Authority figures show.

Nicola Sturgeon and Chief Constable Sir Stephen House have previously rejected a “systemic” problems with police call-handling and put the tragedy down to an individual human error.

John Yuill was found dead inside the blue Renault Clio three days after the crash was first reported to police on Sunday July 5. His girlfriend, Lamara Bell, was still alive but died in hospital days later from dehydration.

The call was taken by a senior officer, but the details were not then fed into the system. A major review has now been launched into police call handling by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland (HMICS), but SPA figures show that Police Scotland’s Bilston Glen call centre, covering the crash area, had 15 staff – more than 10 per cent – absent from work on 11 June less than a month before the tragedy.

It also reveals that staff have worked more than 8,000 hours in overtime since the start of April in order to “mitigate” for staff shortages, with 52 vacancies across the east and west service centres.

Scottish Conservative justice spokeswoman Margaret Mitchell said: “This is a deeply distressing tragedy, all the more so because the warning signs that emerged months ago were completely ignored by the Scottish Government.

“A 10 per cent absence rate is completely unacceptable in a high-pressure environment where people’s lives depend on calls being handled quickly and efficiently.

“Service centre staff are already overburdened from excessive centralisation, but the sheer number of vacancies and lost adviser hours are only putting them under more strain.

“The buck stops with the Scottish Government on this and the public will no doubt wonder why it is constantly on the back foot with Police Scotland.”

Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie also raised concerns.

“This is further evidence of the difficulties that staff operating within police control rooms are facing,” Mr Rennie said.

“We know that these are high-pressure, high-stress jobs. The fact that 10 per cent of staff were absent at Bilston Glen when this report was published last month demonstrates clearly the workload pressures that the remaining staff at these crucial facilities are facing.”

Police Scotland’s Assistant Chief Constable Val Thomson said predicted absence levels are always taken into account and planned around by managers.

She said: “Resource management is calculated to include resilience around absence and, where necessary, we are able to support staffing levels through other means to ensure Police Scotland service centres and control rooms are resourced appropriately.”

READ MORE

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• {http://www.scotsman.com/news/transport/police-scotland-can-t-reveal-why-call-ignored-1-3827644|Police Scotland can’t reveal why M9 crash call ‘ignored’|Link to article}

• {http://www.scotsman.com/news/scotland/top-stories/woman-trapped-with-dead-body-in-car-for-3-days-1-3825644|Woman trapped with dead body in car for 3 days|Link to article}

Shares were becalmed as traders awaited the result of a crunch vote in Athens on whether to accept the terms of Greece’s latest bailout deal.

Fears that politicians could sink the rescue plan overshadowed better-than-expected economic data out of China, where quarterly growth held steady at 7 per cent and efforts are underway to reverse a market plunge.

The FTSE 100 Index ended the day a mere 4.43 points higher at 6,753.75, with uncertainty over Greece weighing on gains.

Josh Mahony, market analyst at IG, said: “Tonight’s Greek parliamentary vote remains the biggest event risk for financial markets, with the very real possibility that the resolution found between creditors and Syriza could be all for nothing if it fails to find approval with politicians in Athens. The Greek crisis is certainly not over yet.”

Shares in Burberry were among the biggest fallers in the top flight, sliding 42p or 2.6 per cent to 1,578p, as the luxury goods group reported a sharp fall in sales in Hong Kong after recent pro-democracy protests kept well-heeled visitors from mainland China away.

Mining giant Anglo American headed in the right direction, rising 4.9p to 874.4p after a broker upgrade from Credit Suisse, while precious metals miner Lonmin jumped 4p or 5.2 per cent to 81.35p.

Scottish Gas owner Centrica was also in positive territory, despite announcing a 5 per cent cut to household bills. Jefferies analyst Peter Atherton said the move came after a 23 per cent fall in wholesale gas prices, so would not hit profit margins, and shares added 3p to finish the session at 280.3p.

Elsewhere, pubs group JD Wetherspoon reported solid sales growth but tighter margins and raised concerns over UK government plans for a statutory living wage, and its shares sank 65p or 8.4 per cent to 706p.

PEERS have backed a move to give 16 and 17-year-olds the vote in council elections in a major defeat for the Government in the House of Lords.

Labour and Liberal Democrat peers took advantage of their majority over the Tories in the Lords to push through the cut in the voting age, which they also want to see for the EU referendum.

Peers voted by 221 to 154, majority 67, to back the amendment to the Cities and Local Government Devolution Bill.

Although the council voting age will not be lowered unless the move is also backed by MPs, the Lords defeat sets up a potential stand-off between the two Houses.

Liberal Democrat spokesman Lord Tyler, who introduced the amendment, said votes at 16 was “both rational and right”.

He said cutting the voting age for the independence referendum in Scotland had proved an overwhelming success and England and Wales should follow the Scottish example.

Opposition spokesman Lord Kennedy of Southwark said young people in Scotland had shown cutting the voting age was “the right thing to do”.

NIGEL Farage hit out at the SNP and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon during a speech in the US, appearing to liken the Nationalists to the Nazis.

Mr Farage took aim at the SNP and Ms Sturgeon during a speech at conservative thinktank the Heritage Foundation, in which he focused mainly on immigration and Britain leaving the EU.

The Ukip leader - who described himself as an ‘updated Henry VIII’ when asked if he saw himself as a ‘British Donald Trump’ - made the comments during a session at conservative thinktank the Heritage Foundation, in Washington DC.

Mr Farage described First Minister Ms Sturgeon as ‘that ghastly woman north of Hadrian’s Wall’, while also describing the SNP as ‘a party who are nationalists and socialists at the same time’.

He later repeated the term, adding: “I couldn’t resist it.”

{http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jul/15/nigel-farage-i-share-concerns-with-donald-trump|The Guardian also reported Mr Farage as telling the Heritage Foundation|Link to article}: “I do think some of the things [Donald Trump] has picked up on in the last few weeks are very similar to the kind of things we’ve picked up on in British politics – the feeling that there is a centralised bureaucracy in Washington, maybe not connecting with some of the concerns of ordinary people.”

Mr Farage’s speech came in the wake of controversial comments made by Mr Trump in which the tycoon suggested that immigrants from Mexico were ‘bringing crime and drugs’ to the United States,.

Mr Trump said at the campaign launch of his bid to be selected as Republican presidential candidate: “[Mexico] are sending people that have lots of problems, and they are bringing those problems to us.

“They are bringing drugs, and bringing crime, and their rapists.”

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IT MAY be ten months until the next Holyrood elections, but already the SNP seems on course for an unprecedented third term in office.

An astonishing poll this week confirmed the trends of recent surveys which put support for Nicola Sturgeon’s party at 55 per cent in Scotland – ten points up on the vote share Alex Salmond secured four years ago when he won a shock Holyrood majority.

So what are the issues which will dominate Nicola Sturgeon’s inbox if she is returned to power?

The messy businesses of sorting out the council tax and knock-on of the near ten-year freeze can surely no longer be put off. It now costs more than £500 million a year to fund the freeze through Scottish Government cash for councils to offset the loss of revenue from basic inflationary hikes.

Ms Sturgeon has established a commission to look into alternatives, but the SNP Government has previously backed a local income tax and this would appear the most likely contender. But with Holyrood poised to gain sweeping new powers over income tax next year, it remains to be seen what appetite there will be for another major fiscal shake-up.

One area where a Holyrood majority –unthinkable at the outset of devolution – will give the Nationalists a strong mandate to forge ahead is on land reform. Powerful landed interests oppose the changes which could open parts of major estates to enforced sell-offs to the local communities. But Ms Sturgeon has insisted the issue is “unfinished business” from the flagship Right to Roam reforms of the first Parliament.

Childcare is something Ms Sturgeon has placed at the top of the political agenda as she aims to get a generation of women back into the workplace. She has pledged Scotland will have an effective full-time system of childcare by 2020 under the SNP. But campaigning mothers have claimed thousands of parents are already losing out on their free current entitlement and cynics will say creating a universal system is highly ambitious.

WHAT is the point of putting a 94-year-old former guard at the Auschwitz death camp on trial and sentencing him to four years imprisonment?

Oskar Groening did not facilitate genocide. He had no direct involvement in the horrific mass murders that took place. So how can such a punishment, at such an age, and more than seventy years after these horrific events, make any sense?

But the central issue in this case is as resonant now as it was when Auschwitz was in its ghastly operation. And it will continue to resonate for future generations. It is whether people who play a minor role in crimes against humanity but had not actively killed anyone could still be guilty of a crime.

The evil of Auschwitz was made possible, not only by those in the front line of mass murder, but by the compliance of hundreds of guards, train drivers, administrators and book-keepers. The passing of the years, and Groening’s physical distance from the gas chambers, makes no difference to this key point. A lawyer for a group of plaintiffs argued that the case demonstrated that Auschwitz as a whole was “a murder machinery… everyone who participated in it has to take responsibility for it”.

And delivering the verdict, Judge Franz Kompisch agreed. He said Groening had willingly taken a “safe desk job” in a system that was “inhumane and all but unbearable for the human psyche”.

More than one million people, most of them European Jews, died between 1940 and 1945 in the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. Ever since the horrors of Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps were exposed, the world has wondered – and continues to wonder – at how such atrocities could have been committed. Perhaps the most chilling aspect of all for a world that recoils in horror at what was undertaken in the death camps is that the events are still within living memory. Indeed, the trial in the northern German city of Lueneburg heard evidence from several people who had survived the death camp. And the children of survivors spoke of their trauma in absorbing their parents’ revelations of horror, of how innocent children could be murdered and whole families and communities eradicated.

While some of the survivors have been capable of forgiveness, a statement from a group of Holocaust survivors and victims’ relatives said the pain of losing families at Auschwitz could not be alleviated by criminal proceedings or the words of the accused.

It is not enough of a defence to argue that the accused did not personally pull the trigger. The core lesson for all if we are to avoid a repetition is the enduring wisdom of Edmund Burke: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

Homecoming was Year of the Day Out

The Year of Homecoming 2014 was the government’s tourist flagship event last year. Every opportunity was taken by government ministers and VisitScotland to bang the drum. But in the event it turned out to be more of a Year of the Day Out for indigenous Scots, with only nine per cent of visitors coming from overseas.

The vast majority of people who attended events already lived in Scotland while most people who spent money on staying overnight were event staff, according to a study commissioned by VisitScotland. Such events have not had a happy history.

The Homecoming attracted just 400,000 overseas visitors, and while VisitScotland claims the total of more than a thousand events generated £136 million of additional revenue to the economy and £94 million of “net additional spending” by visitors, such figures are difficult to compile and confirm with accuracy.

The project was aimed at motivating ancestral Scots, the people of Scotland and “all those with an affinity to Scotland”, to visit the country. Future promotions might now achieve superior results by focusing not just on those with an ancestral connection to Scotland but on the country’s global appeal: its magnificent scenery, and the history and heritage of Scotland’s cities, the national capital in particular.

Attracting tourists world-wide is now of paramount importance given the sharp increase in numbers from the Asia-Pacific region who have had no previous connection with Scotland, ancestral or otherwise.

George Osborne cannot give to low-income families with one hand while taking away with the other if he hopes to end poverty. By Francis Stuart

‘The best route out of poverty is work” said the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, while outlining his Budget Statement earlier this month.

The priority placed on employment is also clear within Scotland’s Economic Strategy.

“Bringing more people into the labour market”, it states, “is the key to tackling poverty, inequality and social deprivation and improving health and wellbeing”.

This might be true, at least in part, but only if the labour market delivers decent work.

Work can help provide purpose and dignity, as well as, crucially, an income.

Yet too often it fails to provide economic independence, while damaging health and well-being.

The latest poverty figures published last month show a welcome return to the downward trend in Scotland after the previous year’s rise.

Yet, half of working age adults in poverty – and more than half of children in poverty – live in working households.

A recent report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation shows that those on the minimum wage continue to fall short of a basic standard of living.

Compared to what the public say is needed for an acceptable living standard it finds that single adults on the minimum wage were £27 short in 2008, and £52 short in 2015.

Couples with two children were worse off: £31 short in 2008, and £74 short in 2015.

Too many people – whether single adults, couples or parents – do not have sufficient income.

Estimates suggest that more than 400,000 workers in Scotland, two thirds of them women, are paid less than a living wage.

The Chancellor’s proposed “national living wage” of £7.20 an hour from next year – rising to £9 by 2020 – is a welcome step towards raising wages for the lowest paid, at least for those over 25 for whom it applies.

However, it still falls short of the actual living wage, calculated on the basis of what the public say is needed for an acceptable standard of living, which is currently £7.85 an hour, and is predicated on full take-up of tax credits and other in-work benefits, which the Chancellor has cut.

We cannot give to low-income families with one hand and take more away with the other.

What is more, the rise of in-work poverty is not solely down to low pay.

In recent years we have seen large increases in insecure work – the STUC estimate there are 120,000 people in Scotland on zero-hour contracts – as well as part-time work and low-paid self-employment.

This is leading to a revolving door of people falling in and out of the labour market.

Improving job quality could help break this damaging cycle.

Oxfam’s Humankind Index, created in consultation with 3,000 people across Scotland, showed that people value satisfying, secure and suitable work – as well as a sufficient income.

Work often fails to deliver across any of these fronts despite research suggesting employers who provide decent work have lower staff turnover, higher levels of morale, and lower sick levels.

Our health and wellbeing, our social relationships, and even our identities are created and impacted by our experience of work.

Too many people have stressful, demanding jobs which, when combined with a lack of control over their day-to-day tasks, are bad for their health.

This is compounded by an increasingly polarised labour market in which people at the bottom feel undervalued and those at the very top seem to earn exorbitant salaries.

As Martin Taulbut of NHS Health Scotland told MSPs on the Scottish Parliament’s Economy Committee last month, a perceived imbalance between effort and reward: “increases the risk of not only premature mortality but of illness more generally”.

We must also remember the societal benefits delivered by those doing unpaid work, which is too often ignored or undervalued.

Encouragingly, there seems to be momentum behind improving job quality in Scotland.

The Economy Committee are conducting an inquiry into “Work, Wages and Wellbeing” and the Scottish Government’s Fair Work Convention is also tasked with promoting “a fairer workplace”.

Meanwhile, the First Minister has named Naomi Eisenstadt an adviser on poverty and inequality.

It is critical she is now given the powers and resources to speak with, as well as for, people with experience of low-paid jobs, and to transparently scrutinise Government policy.

These initiatives, combined with Social Justice Secretary Alex Neil’s “national discussion” about creating “a fairer Scotland”, have the potential to produce significant progress.

To succeed they must focus on improving the quality, as well as quantity, of work in Scotland.

Only then will work truly serve as the route out of poverty we need it to be.

• Francis Stuart is policy and research adviser with Oxfam Scotland.

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Luxury fashion brand Burberry has seen its sales growth ease amid weakening demand in Asia and a volatile American market.

The 159-year-old firm, famous for its checked trench coats, said yesterday that retail sales rose 8 per cent to £407 million in the three months to the end of June – down on the double-digit growth recorded a year earlier.

Like-for-like store sales fell sharply in Hong Kong – one of its most profitable regions – after recent pro-democracy protests kept mainland Chinese tourists away.

However, chief financial officer Carol Fairweather said the brand remained committed to the area.

“We manage the business for the long term, always looking through that lens,” she said. “All of those [Hong Kong] stores remain profitable and so no change to strategy.”

Sohil Chotai, an analyst at Edison Investment, noted: “The near term will be challenging due to currency volatility and weakness in Hong Kong and China.”

The results will add pressure on Burberry’s boss Christopher Bailey, who faces shareholders at tomorrow’s annual meeting.

Voting has closed in the battle for the Liberal Democrat leadership, with the winner to be ­announced today.

MPs Norman Lamb and Tim Farron are vying to succeed Nick Clegg in the party’s top post – with the latter the bookies’ ­favourite to win.

Whoever emerges victorious will have a major rescue job on their hands in the wake of a disastrous election which reduced the Lib Dems to a rump of just eight MPs in the Commons.

Some 60,000 party members have been eligible to take part in the ballot, which closed at 2pm.There was no indication as polls closed of how many have cast a vote.

Between them, the two candidates have attended 25 hustings, more than 100 campaign events and covered about 20,000 miles.

They announced their intentions to stand within a week of former party leader Nick Clegg’s resignation speech the day after the general election, in which the party lost 85 per cent of its MPs and two-thirds of its voters.

The Liberal Democrats have been left with just one MP north of the Border, the former Secretary of State for Scotland Alistair Carmichael, who represents Orkey and Shetland.

IN a book on the early BBC, historian Thomas Hajkowski recalls a fierce row between the Scottish programme director and a London Head Office executive over the transmission of the opera Acis and Galatea.

Head Office insisted Scots needed more Handel in their lives; the programme director thought otherwise.

In the end, Head Office won but Hajkowski argues that in the mid-1930s BBC Scotland had a confident and strong-willed staff whose first priority was to provide quality Scottish programmes for Scottish audiences.

Today, 80 years on, the UK Government is to publish a consultation paper on the future of the BBC, in the wake of a funding deal that takes a substantial chunk out of the corporation’s income.

Never before has there been such an urgent need for “a confident and strong-willed” BBC staff in Scotland. The very nature of the BBC appears to be under threat from a government that has already used licence fee money to pay for a branch of UK foreign policy, the World Service, and which has now announced a further raid to finance a welfare benefit: free TV licences for the over-75s.

BBC Scotland’s annual review this week served up the usual self-congratulatory text about how rosy the broadcasting garden is here. It took regulator, the BBC Trust, to point out the weeds. Most striking was that less than half the audience believe news coverage reflects their lives. More encouragingly the Trust recognised public service broadcasting must change to reflect further devolution.

A fundamental re-organisation is required so Scotland has a public service broadcaster capable of doing what it is supposed to do: reflecting and representing the diversity of the nation.

BBC Scotland should take control of BBC2 – in the evenings at least – to commission and produce its own schedule of programmes.

One more Scottish radio station should be introduced – it is unsustainable, and messy, to have a single national Radio Scotland which covers everything from gardening to country music.

Executive salaries and astronomical fees for “talent” should be cut and the BBC’s website scaled back. A proper public service broadcaster would be the greatest boost our creative economy and cultural life could have. It’s worth fighting for.

• Ewan Crawford is a lecturer in journalism at the University of the West of Scotland

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EVENTS, birthdays and anniversaries on July 16.

AD622: Traditional starting day of the Islamic Era, when a persecuted Muhammad fled from Mecca to Medina.

1328: David II, the son of Robert the Bruce, married Joan, the sister of Edward III. He was four years old, she was seven.

1429: Joan of Arc and the French army marched into Reims.

1439: Kissing was banned in England to prevent the spread of germs.

1832: Thirty-one Shetland “sixerns”, with a total of 105 crewmen, were lost in a storm. It is still remembered as “The Bad Day”.

1917: Lenin fled Russia disguised as a fireman after the provisional government put down Bolshevik uprising.

1918: Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his family were executed by a Bolshevik firing squad at Ekaterinsburg, Siberia.

1926: National Geographic took its first natural-colour undersea photographs.

1945: First atomic bomb was exploded over desert in New Mexico, during the Second World War, heralding start of atomic age.

1950: Uruguay defeated Brazil 2-1 to win the football World Cup in Rio de Janeiro.

1951: Len Hutton scored his hundredth century for Yorkshire against Surrey at The Oval.

1951: JD Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye was published.

1965: The seven-mile Mont Blanc road tunnel was opened, linking France with Italy.

1969: US Apollo 11 spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral, with Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin and Michael Collins, to attempt first manned landing on Moon.

1970: The 13th Commonwealth Games opened in Edinburgh.

1979: Saddam Hussein succeeded president Al-Bakr as president of Iraq.

1980: Ronald Reagan was nominated as US presidential candidate by Republicans in Detroit.

1983: Twenty people were killed in Britain’s worst helicopter disaster when a Sikorsky-S61 came down off the Isles of Scilly.

1990: Daphne Parish, a British nurse sentenced to 15 years in prison in Iraq for assisting journalist Farzad Bazoft who was executed for spying, was released after a personal appeal from president Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia.

1990: Former Soviet state, Ukraine, declared independence.

1993: Stella Rimington, head of MI5, met the press and revealed details of her organisation’s work in a booklet, The Security Service.

1994: A fragment of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet caused a mark the size of the Earth when it collided with the planet Jupiter at 138,000mph.

1994:The Three Tenors – Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti and José Carreras – performed together in Los Angeles.

1996: Relatives of the 16 children killed in the Dunblane massacre appealed for tough gun controls when they met MPs at Westminster at the start of a campaign for early legislation.

1999: John F Kennedy jnr, piloting a Piper Saratoga aircraft, died when his plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off Martha’s Vineyard. His wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette were also killed.

2009: Nasa admitted it deleted the only high-resolution images of the first moonwalk in 1969.

BIRTHDAYS

Will Ferrell, comedy actor, 48; Stewart Copeland, rock musician (the Police), 63; Professor Anita Brookner CBE, novelist and art historian, 87; Phoebe Cates, actress, 52; Michael Flatley, Irish step dancer and dance impresario, 57; Shirley Hughes OBE, author and illustrator of books for young children, 88; Miguel Indurain, five-times Tour de France winner, 51; Sir James Loy Macmillan CBE, Scottish composer, 56; Gareth Bale, Welsh international footballer, 26; Adam Scott, Australian golfer, 35; Margaret Court MBE, former Wimbledon tennis champion, 73; Sergio Busquets, footballer, 27; Dennis Priestley, darts player, 65.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1194 St Clare of Assisi, Italian saint; 1723 Sir Joshua Reynolds, portrait painter and first president of the Royal Academy; 1872 Roald Amundsen, explorer; 1887 “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, baseball player; 1896 Trygve Halvdan Lie, first secretary general of United Nations; 1901 Fritz Mahler, composer; 1911 Ginger Rogers, dancer and actress; 1907 Barbara Stanwyck, actress; 1940 Eddie Thompson OBE, chairman of Dundee United football club; 1941 Desmond Dekker, Reggae singer.

Deaths: 1216 Pope Innocent III, Italian Pope; 1309 James Stewart, High Steward of Scotland; 1557 Anne of Cleves, fourth wife of King Henry VIII; 1764 Ivan VI, Russian Tsar; 1965 Joseph Hilaire Belloc, writer and historian; 1995 Professor Sir Stephen Spender, poet and critic; 1996 John Panozzo, drummer (Styx); 2008 Jo Stafford, singer; 2012 Jon Lord, musician (Deep Purple, Whitesnake the Flower Pot Men).

Fife council has signalled its support for the proposed £500 million Rosyth waterfront project.

The scheme’s backers heralded the decision of the council’s executive committee to support the principle of a mixed used development as a “major milestone”.

Plans for the former Ministry of Defence site were outlined last year and developers hope that they will lead to the creation of 3,500 jobs and £500m worth of investment.

A new masterplan will now enable Fife Council and Scarborough Muir Group (SMG) to work in partnership, and help “get the economy back to pre-2008 levels”. SMG director ­William McAllister said: “As one of Scotland’s largest urban regeneration schemes we are pleased to be making good progress as we work towards submitting a planning application.”

Mr McAllister added: “The new strategy means that new thinking is required and we look forward to working with council officers to deliver the clear political direction that has been given.”

Barclays deputy chairman Sir Mike Rake is expected to leave at the end of the year after being appointed chairman of payments processing firm Worldpay.

Rake will take up the post at Worldpay on 1 September and Barclays said he would hold both positions until “at least” the end of 2015, although it is understood he has already made it clear to the bank’s board he plans to step down by early 2016.

Details of the appointment come just a week after Barclays chief executive Antony Jenkins was fired amid reports of a boardroom fallout.

Recently appointed Scots chairman John McFarlanee said a new leader was needed for the bank after revenue and shares growth had failed to impress.

McFarlane is taking over duties from Jenkins as executive chairman on an interim basis from Friday.

A spokesman for Barclays said yesterday: “Sir Michael Rake is the deputy chairman and senior independent director on the Barclays board.

“Sir Michael intends to continue in these positions, and be a member of the board, until at least the end of 2015. If and when he stands down from the Barclays board, a new senior independent director will of course have been appointed.”

It is thought Rake had already told McFarlane that he was planning to leave Barclays at the end of the year and informed the board last month he was in talks with Worldpay.

Rake joined the board of Barclays in January 2008 and has been deputy chairman since July 2012. He is also chairman of BT Group and previously headed the board of EasyJet, while he just stepped down as president of the CBI business lobby group.

As chairman of Worldpay, he would be taking on an important role for the group as it prepares for a stock market listing. He succeeds John Allan at Worldpay, which was formerly owned by Royal Bank of Scotland.

Allan said: “[Rake’s] expertise in financial services and technology and his experience of leading boards will be invaluable to Worldpay.”

Straight-talking solutions are best, writes Sophie Pilgrim

As defined by the Scottish Independence Advocacy Alliance, independent advocacy is a way to help people have a stronger voice and to have as much control as possible over their own lives. Advocacy is an important means of ensuring that statutory provision is equitable and accessible to those who, for whatever reason, have more difficulty in being heard.

At Kindred, we provide an advocacy service for families of children with disabilities and longterm conditions that is hugely in demand.

We have seen a year-on-year increase in the numbers of families that turn to us for support. For the first time in 22 years we have had to temporarily close all our projects to new enquiries, to catch our breath. This week, I looked out the numbers for an application to the Big Lottery Fund. Since 2011, the number of families we have supported per year has almost doubled, rising from 492 to 909.

It is daunting to experience an increase in complexity of families using our service. We now support a high proportion of families of children with life-limiting conditions, many families on the paediatric intensive care unit at Sick Kids, families with the most troubling histories of abuse and neglect, parents with learning disabilities, and, more recently, families requiring food banks and emergency grants.

Almost half of the families whom we support access Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMHS) and we have a curious insight into the workings of the CAMHS teams to the point where I sometimes feel vaguely voyeuristic.

We can see, for example, the desperate plight of families of children sent to England because there is no inpatient care for children with autism and learning disability in Scotland, and the way in which this dire situation impacts on community CAMHS teams.

For children and young people, diagnosis of conditions such as Autism Spectrum Disorder often come about as a result of challenging behaviour, including self-harm. Usually parents have had to endure ill-informed judgements on their parenting while waiting for a diagnosis, especially when there are long waiting lists for CAMHS services.

This is one reason that parents often respond with relief, or at least mixed feelings, if they do receive a diagnosis.

As advocates, we can support parents to believe in their own knowledge of their child.

I recently took a call from a parent who told me, with tears and angry outbursts, about her 17 year old son’s inadequate care package. I was feeling over-stretched myself, so I fired off a series of quick, impatient questions, interrupted her answers and, showing no sympathy, moved on to what we could do to address her situation. After 20 minutes she shouted at me, “You really get this don’t you? In 17 years I’ve never spoken to anyone who has got it.”

But of course I got it. She had just described exactly the same series of events that I had experienced with my own son.

And I knew from my own experiences that she did not want my sympathy.

She wanted advocacy – someone to explain, support, sort evidence, and represent – so that she could make her case and get back to running her successful business and carry on being a carer of a young man with extremely challenging needs.

Why is advocacy so little understood unless you’ve been on the receiving end? Even after six years in post I have struggled to answer that question. The reality is that not enough people know enough about it and how to access it.

It is nice to have our staff described as “guardian angels”. But probably the reality is something more down to earth. Most of our staff at Kindred are parents of children with disabilities (12 of our 16 staff). Between us there is not a lot that we haven’t experienced ourselves, from CAMHS to hospital care, from specialist schooling, equipment and home adaptations, to the vagaries of diagnosis, from our low-birth weight babies to our six-foot tall adult children. 

Parents of children with disabilities often know no one who shares their experience of caring. Because of this they experience a particular kind of isolation and find themselves struggling to explain themselves over and over again. 

There is a clear need for independent advocacy services to be more widely available and above all, a statutory right for those who need it.

Young people with mental health issues and their families are amongst the most vulnerable in our society – let’s make sure we do all that we can to give them the help and support that they need.

• Sophie Pilgrim is director of kindred advocacy and a member of the Scottish Children’s Services Coalition

SEE ALSO

{http://www.scotsman.com/the-scotsman/opinion/comment/friends-of-the-scotsman-invitation-from-the-editor-1-2943334|• More information on becoming a Friend of The Scotsman |More information}

Breakdown service AA is set to launch its first mortgage product next year after agreeing a ten-year partnership deal with Bank of Ireland.

The company currently offers savings accounts through a tie-up with Birmingham Midshires, a division of Bank of Scotland, as well as life insurance cover via Legal & General.

Its first product launch with Bank of Ireland, planned for this month, will be a credit card, with loans and savings accounts to follow. The partnership also expects to launch the first AA-branded mortgage in 2016.

AA executive chairman Bob Mackenzie said: “This long-term partnership forms a fundamental part of our growth strategy to transform the AA into a membership club serving a broader range of the UK motorists’ needs.

“This new venture builds on the AA’s brand strength and financial services expertise and lays the foundations for the AA to develop a long-term strategic financial services proposition.”

Bank of Ireland already has a financial services relationship with the Post Office, offering current accounts, mortgages and credit cards.

Des Crowley, chief executive of the lender’s UK arm, said: “This new partnership with the AA is an important development for Bank of Ireland, building on the highly valued long-term and successful financial services partnership which we have in the UK with the Post Office.

He added: “Our strategy is to selectively be the long-term partner of choice with certain select leading and trusted brands in the UK whose vision and customer ethos we understand and share as they seek to expand and develop their presence in financial services.”

Liberum analyst Joe Brent said the tie-up is expected to “revitalise” AA’s sales of financial products, which have become “increasingly unimportant” for the group, accounting for less than 1 per cent of overall sales.

Pubs giant JD Wetherspoon has became the latest firm to raise concerns over government plans to bring in a living wage, warning of “unsustainable pressure” on an industry already struggling with taxes and competition from supermarkets.

Wetherspoon chairman Tim Martin yesterday rounded on the Chancellor’s Budget announcement of a compulsory living wage of £7.20 an hour for over-25s from April next year, rising to £9 by 2020.

He said the plans would see pubs put at an even greater disadvantage compared with supermarkets, as the industry already shoulders significant staff costs.

Those costs make up around 25 per cent of every pint sold for an average of £3 in pubs, according to Wetherspoon, which has more than 930 pubs, including Edinburgh’s Standing Order and the Counting House in Glasgow.

But the firm estimates that staff costs only make up 10 per cent of a pint sold for less than £1 in supermarkets, meaning the increased wage bills from the living wage would hit pubs with “far greater force”.

In a trading update revealing soild sales growth but tighter margins, Martin warned: “The recent government announcement regarding the ‘living wage’ adds considerable uncertainty to future financial projections in the pub industry.

“Pubs contribute around 40 per cent of sales as taxes of one kind or another and are important generators of jobs.

“Capricious initiatives by the government, widening the financial disparity between pubs and supermarkets, will threaten the future of many more pubs.”

He added: “Wetherspoon is conscious of the need to attract and retain excellent staff. In addition to a 5 per cent minimum starting-pay increase announced last October, we agreed an 8 per cent increase for the 3 August this year, before the government introduced its latest plans.

“We also pay approximately one third of profits to staff in bonuses and free shares and 80 per cent of this is paid to staff who work in our pubs.”

The group, which has flourished on the back of its offering of low-cost drinks and all-day food, posted a 2.9 per cent rise in like-for-like sales in the 11 weeks to 12 July, while total sales rose 6.5 per cent.

The firm’s operating margin fell again to 7 per cent, due to higher costs and cut-price breakfasts and coffee deals. It guided to a full-year operating margin of 7.4 per cent, down from as much as 10.2 per cent in 2009.

But it confirmed expectations for full-year pre-tax profits to remain flat, with the City looking at a figure of about £80 million.

Investec analyst Alex Paterson said: “We suspect that higher wages not only to JD Wetherspoon’s staff, but also more widely for other workers from the subsequently announced living wage, will boost spending in JD Wetherspoon’s pubs. We doubt we have captured this potential upside and therefore reiterate our ‘add’ recommendation.”

There are mounting fears over the impact of the living wage in sectors that already face high staff wage bills, such as pubs, retailers and care homes.

Shares among retailers were sent reeling immediately after the Budget last week as investors feared the impact on results of increased costs, while experts have since warned over higher prices for consumers as firms seek to pass on the burden.

Wetherspoon has been a vocal critic of unfair taxes in the pubs sector, arguing that supermarkets do not have to pay VAT on food sales and are effectively able to subsidise alcohol prices.

Continuing public cuts require a smart response, says Dave Watson

Recent announcements in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Highland that local government will have to make significant job cuts comes as no surprise.

Local government have already taken the brunt of austerity, with 40,000 Scottish council job losses since the crash. Very few councillors will tell you this is why they came into politics: to oversee the decimation of local democracy. But with other big cuts coming from the UK government and the Scottish government’s priorities, local government can expect the worst.

There may be some posturing as finance directors have the difficult task of telling staff and departments that money is very tight, and council leaders prepare their people for what to expect in the coming months. But, as yet, no decisions have been taken, and it is elected councillors who have the final say. But we can be under no doubt, serious job and public service cuts are coming to local government.

It all starts with UK government austerity, which is ideologically driven. It’s based on the belief that public services should be no more than a basic safety net. The argument goes that councils should just collect the bins, fix the roads and provide a statutory legal minimum in protection for children and vulnerable adults.

Most of us believe, as the opinion polls show, that public services are a force for good. That young people need to have something to do; that it is for the good of us all to keep people in work; that older people need to be kept active. We are in no doubt that this is exactly when we need local services. They can be used to create demand in the economy and reduce serious social problems. It is local public services, held democratically accountable, which are closest to the people and best placed to deliver imaginative solutions.

Gordon Brown once said that more than this, public service is an ethos “which runs deep in our history, determines the character of our country, and defines our uniqueness to the world”. I agree. It is an ethos that links the public services, public delivery and public decision making. And it’s central to this ethos that public services insulate, particularly our more vulnerable communities, from market forces.

We should not underestimate the social fallout that a new round of austerity will bring. What is now on the table will cause all manner of social ills. It will again fall to trade unions and other like-minded bodies to lead the movement against austerity, to remind people that there is another way.  We must lead the campaign, debate and challenge the cosy fiscal consensus across Europe. We must talk up public services; explain the value they bring to the world, and remind us all of the ethos they are founded on.

However, in Scotland we also have devolution and part of the reason for devolution is to take another path if it is in the interest of Scotland. To protect Scots from a political dogma they did not vote for – to use public services to protect Scots from the worst of austerity.

The Scottish Government cannot just say austerity is wrong and campaign with us against it. We must also look at how we can mitigate against the draconian cuts that are coming.

And crucially, it is too easy for UK and Scottish Governments to use councils to administer austerity. The Scottish Government, at least, must work with local government to mitigate the cuts, to reduce their impact and make them more humane.

Both Scottish Government and councils need to be imaginative about how they can improve some lives in austere times. In the not-too-distant past, Strathclyde Regional Council did just that to tackle Thatcherism.

Devolution gives us new levers to act in a similar way in this decade.

The Scottish government has huge political capital. People will give them a chance. It must start by ending the council tax freeze to give local government full flexibility to decide locally what services they can save and how they can invest to improve local economies.

They must also work to intervene early and continue to press ahead with preventive spending. And most importantly, be imaginative and less cautious in how we can mitigate against the worst of what is to come.

Yes, our task is to end austerity and the ideology from which it comes. But in the meantime, we all need to work constructively to mitigate its worst effects.

• Dave Watson is Scottish organiser (bargaining and campaigns) with Unison Scotland

SEE ALSO

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FACULTY OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE

HONORARY DOCTOR OF SCIENCE -

Joe MacInnis

SCHOOL OF APPLIED SOCIAL STUDIES

MASTER OF SCIENCE CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ENERGY - Ibrahim Umar

MASTER OF SCIENCE SOCIAL WORK - Nkechi Winifred Adekwu; Martyn Ian Bradley; Janine Catto; Adele Gemma Cleveley; Nicola Ann Collins; Michelle Duguid; Craig Ferguson; Oyenike Gbenle; Chinwe Perpetual Ihegbu; Rachel Elizabeth Ladejobi; Catherine Hazel Maxwell; Fiona Scott; Jolanta Siewiec; Janine Webster; Fiona Louise Wilson

POSTGRADUATE DIPLOMA SOCIAL WORK - Steven Clark; Lorna Jane Cummins; Kirstin Meyer; Sarah Shaw

POSTGRADUATE CERTIFICATE MENTAL HEALTH OFFICER AWARD - Ian George Norquay Gordon; Jane Marie Westmacott

POSTGRADUATE CERTIFICATE RESEARCH METHODS - Neil Fraser Gibson

GRADUATE CERTIFICATE PRACTICE LEARNING QUALIFICATION (SOCIAL SERVICES) - Fiona Brown; Sean James William Brown; Melanie Duncan; Lucy Jane Elizabeth Engels; Stephen Allan Fraser; Jennifer Imray; Fiona Clouston Lovie; Senga MacDonald; Craig Alexander MacKay; Frankie William McLean; Alison Frances Napier; Emma Louise Walker

BACHELOR OF ARTS APPLIED SOCIAL SCIENCES - HONOURS - Sophia Maria Abdul-Jabbar; Mary Aiyeetan; Lyndsey Jess Anderson; Rebecca Amy Armstrong; Jessica Kate Barton; Nicola Louise Bruce; Jessica Cardno; Rebecca Lauren Coleman; Zoe Louise Craig; Caroline Elizabeth Dickson; Hannah Louise Dunn; Megan Mathilde Edwards; Laura George; Natalia Marta Gierach; Jessica Mary Gillon; Jennifer Gordon; Francesca Green; Michelle Annamarie Greenfield; Rebecca Linsey Hamilton; Hannah Hayward; Natalie Keith; Denisa Kopecka; Michelle Lawrie; Cara MacKenzie; Katherine Mary MacLennan; Skye Lisa MacLeod; Samantha Marie Matson; Aimie Maree McLellan; Ross Stephen McTavish; Alice Ann Milne; Lewis James Mitchell; Jaroslava Mlcochova; Daryll Stephen Morrow; Kathleen Mulholland; Erin Mutch; Veronika Panchártková; Christopher Pope; Danielle Franchesca Povey; Jemma Ann Pritchard; Eilidh Reid; Cheryl Rintoul; Vicki-Louise Robb; Josh Robertson; Ioana Elisabeta Rusu; Christina Rosana Sandison; Rhona Helen Skene; Sharon Lilian Skene; Zoë Yasmine Smith; Lisa Elaine Nicola Swan; Rachel Swinglehurst; Julia Ellen Tague; Amie Taylor; Alexandra Victoria Townson; Alena Zvonařová

BACHELOR OF ARTS SOCIAL WORK - HONOURS - Demi Nicolle Black; Lena Brox; Christina Compton; Kirsti Dicks; Hannah Elaine Dunn; Ashleigh Elouise Dunnett; Chelsea Fulton; Alexander James Furneaux; Stacey Elizabeth Gavin; Lara Gray; Leanne Greene; Matthew James Herron; Gary Robert Hogg; Danielle Jane Innes; Christina Rafferty Jamieson; Joanne Learmonth; Claire MacKenzie; Faye Sarah McCune; Ashleigh Louise McInally; Eilidh Elizabeth Janet McLachlan; Melissa McPhee; Kirsteen Meeks; Sheri Elizabeth Milan; Michelle Mitchell; Ross Denis Morrison; Natasha Tara O’Connell; Kelsey Anne Rance; Erin Ann Rendall; Karen Rendall; Jayne Rendle; Paulina Lucyna Skalna; Abby Spence; Yolanda Aitken Spittal; Cheryl Stephen; Sarah Watson; Lisa- Marie Woodside Gordon; Simone Zacha

BACHELOR OF ARTS APPLIED SOCIAL SCIENCES - Molly-Jean Curtis; Rory John McKinnon; Kirstie Rogan; Valeriya Thores; Lucy Alexandra Watters

BACHELOR OF ARTS APPLIED SOCIAL STUDIES - Rebecca Caitlin Marnoch; Rebecca May Mulholland

BACHELOR OF ARTS SOCIAL STUDIES - Graeme Bell

DIPLOMA OF HIGHER EDUCATION APPLIED SOCIAL STUDIES - Emma Guthrie

SCHOOL OF HEALTH SCIENCES

MASTER OF RESEARCH - Sheli Jane McCoy; Hamish Samuel Munro

MASTER OF SCIENCE CLINICAL BIOMECHANICS - Animesh Hazari; Mehzabeen Nisar Warsi

MASTER OF SCIENCE HEALTH IMPROVEMENT AND HEALTH PROMOTION - Lynsey Kemlo

MASTER OF SCIENCE PHYSIOTHERAPY (PRE-REGISTRATION) - Marc Evan Beeber; Rosie Mae Dawson; Victoria Judith Szametz de Ga; Carol Louise Doherty; Vivian Ifunanya Ezieke; Lynsey MacDonald Ferguson; Niamh Marie Gaughan; Robert Paul Hammond; Gavin Horan; Mazahir Jafferjee; Haley Marie Jasper; James Matthew Loughlin; Kali MacLennan; Julia Margaret Magee; Virginia McLoughlin; Taylor James Nicks; Alan Quill; Crystal Ann Reno; Ewan Andrew Scott; Megan Anne Sporndli; Christopher Walsh

MASTER OF SCIENCE SPORTS BIOMECHANICS - Manasi Manohar Raut; Rahul Tiwari

POSTGRADUATE DIPLOMA HEALTH IMPROVEMENT AND HEALTH PROMOTION - Monika Carrie

POSTGRADUATE DIPLOMA PROFESSIONAL STUDIES - Richard John Vanson

POSTGRADUATE CERTIFICATE RESEARCH METHODS - Bryan James Alexander McCann

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE APPLIED SPORT AND EXERCISE SCIENCE - HONOURS - Cameron Boyd; Lucy Buchan; John Murray Burnett; Mark Andrew Cowie; Matthew James Fraser; Sarah Victoria Fraser; Robert Charles Gibbs; Elizabeth Hughes; John King; Shannon Louise Lawson; Duncan McIntyre; Iain McKay; Gordon Charles McNab; Jack Andrew Thomas Millar; Dominic Mulligan; Carol Munro; Craig Pirie; Ruth Fiona Plant; Iona Riley; James Craig Simpson; Jamie Wilmshurst; Fei Iat Wong; Colin Harald Andrew Wooley

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE DIAGNOSTIC RADIOGRAPHY - HONOURS - Linsey Jane Black; Lynsey Blair; Ross Cameron; Regina Cremin; Melissa Davidson; Danielle Dinnes; Katherine V Duff; Rebecca Sarah Duncan; Louise Gillespie; Lisa Glennie; Stephanie Gemma Guy; Amy Jane Jack; Joanne Maxwell; Mary Antoinette McNeil; Claire Louise Meadows; Shona Metcalfe; Jasmine May Murray; Ciara Newell; Lucy Owen; Frank Ryan; Sheila Scott; Jason Michael Stanley; Claire Ann Stephen; Catriona Ilene Elizabeth Strachan; Lucy Walsh; Rae Nicola Wilson

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY - HONOURS - Emily Breen; Chelsea Burnside; Natalie Louise Crawford; Maeve Finnan; Angela Michelle Gifford; Amy Louise Gray; Rebecca Claire Ironside; Sarah Valerie Kennedy; Sally Ann Kiernan; Grace Kirwan; Nicole McLair; Lynn Margaret Rennie; Abby Bessie Rintoul; Hannah Robertson; Zoey Louise Simpson; Chloe Smith; Siobhan Stevenson; Jodie M Thom

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE PHYSIOTHERAPY - HONOURS - Scout Alexandra Adkin; Ashley Louise Bell; Kate Maria Ellen Condell; Sheila Marie Condren; Zara Dickson; Nicola Drummond; Theresa Drury; Niamh Egan; Ellen Tod Florence; Ceri Louise Griffiths; Kirsty Hulse; Bernadette Kelly; Gail Carol McAndrew; Stella McCall; Christine McLoughlin; Gavin Ryan O’ Brien; Lauren Ogilvie; Julie Paton; Susan Ramsay; Keith Raymond; Katie Leanne Rough; Ágnes Réz; Catherine Webber; Kerry Crystal Williamson; Mairi Wilson; Georgia May Wood

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE APPLIED SPORT AND EXERCISE SCIENCE - David William Hale; Scott Graham Waller

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE HEALTH RELATED PROFESSIONAL STUDIES - Graham Burnett

DIPLOMA OF HIGHER EDUCATION HEALTH RELATED PROFESSIONAL STUDIES - Stefan Tarazona

DIPLOMA OF HIGHER EDUCATION SPORT AND EXERCISE SCIENCE - Ryan Munro

SCHOOL OF NURSING AND MIDWIFERY

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY - Elaine Allan; Ziying Shuai; Stephen Smith

MASTER OF SCIENCE ADVANCED CLINICAL PRACTICE - Craig Stanley Adamson; Bridget Jane Coutts; Lyn Maureen Dickson; Beth Louise Kelton; Lorna Marsden; Clare Marie O’Sullivan; Mark Taylor Robison; Joan Sandison; Julie Anne Warrender; Kirsty Williamson

POSTGRADUATE CERTIFICATE ADVANCED CLINICAL PRACTICE - Helen Shona Innes

BACHELOR OF NURSING (ADULT NURSING) - HONOURS - Catriona Margaret MacDonald Armour; Niamh Marie Broder; Katie Hannah Button; Jennifer McLean Clunie; Laura Jade McGregor Ellis; Holly Diane Hutton; Amy Luise Johnston; Vincent James Kelly; Alexander Martin Lawless; Rebekah Lorin Mann; Karen Margaret Masterson; Claire McAlpine Mather; Jill McBride; Eilidh Mairead Seònaid McGregor; Michelle Frances McLoughlin; Merran Ita Merran Nugent; Charlotte Elizabeth Scott

BACHELOR OF NURSING COMMUNITY HEALTH - HONOURS - Julia Margaret Carrington; Jessie Strachan Evans; Amy Gemma Mitchell

BACHELOR OF ARTS OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH PRACTICE - Precious Nsikakabasi Dan; Sylviane Marie Morand

BACHELOR OF MIDWIFERY; Sophie Louise Margaret Poole; Kiera Scarlett Rose Watson

BACHELOR OF NURSING (ADULT NURSING); Hazel Linda Chapman; Laura Beth Crockatt; Hannah Elizabeth Grant; Sarah Elizabeth Jamieson; Paula Charlene Kerr; Rachel Emma O’Neill; Jennifer Wallace; Sarah Jessie Frederica Watters; Karma Louise Whitehouse

BACHELOR OF NURSING (CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE’S NURSING) - Rebecca Emily Robeson

BACHELOR OF NURSING (MENTAL HEALTH NURSING) - Katie Kane

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE COMMUNITY HEALTH - Karen McRobbie

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH PRACTICE - Jane Louise Mountain; Carys Mair Turner

GRADUATE CERTIFICATE PROFESSIONAL STUDIES - Sharon Anne Murray Jackson

DIPLOMA OF HIGHER EDUCATION HEALTH STUDIES - Elizabeth Shelly Brown; Samantha Louise Gough; Claire Janet Lynott

DIPLOMA OF HIGHER EDUCATION NURSING (ADULT NURSING) - Louise Suzanne Galt; Rufina Achsah Rajendran

DIPLOMA OF HIGHER EDUCATION WOMEN’S ISSUES - Claire Williamson

CERTIFICATE OF HIGHER EDUCATION HEALTH STUDIES - Alison Elaine Mitchell

SCHOOL OF PHARMACY AND LIFE SCIENCES

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY - Amina Bahmed; Okechukwu Obisike Ndu; Lorna Marie West

MASTER OF RESEARCH - Ziad Omar Mohammad Sartawi

MASTER OF SCIENCE CLINICAL PHARMACY - Asia Ibrahim Abdalla; Rosemarie Joan Bailey; Louise Rose Docherty; Sinéad Keane; Kah Poh Lau; Diane Helen Blair Murray; Evelyn Ann O’Callaghan; Oran Joseph Quinn; Elaine Maree Sheridan; Pui Yan Yeung

MASTER OF SCIENCE CLINICAL PHARMACY PRACTICE (HOSPITAL) - Saima Ahmed Ayyad; Clare Emma Andrews; Sinéad Margaret Connolly; Robert Watson Cord; Samah Elghossein; Salma Abdel Hameid Ismail; Patrick James McGee; Sandra O’Neill; Nadine Louise Turner

MASTER OF SCIENCE INSTRUMENTAL ANALYTICAL SCIENCES: OILFIELD CHEMICALS - Michael Olufemi Oni

MASTER OF SCIENCE PRESCRIBING SCIENCES - Iain Hewitt

POSTGRADUATE DIPLOMA ADVANCED PHARMACY PRACTICE - Hei-Yee Chan-Mcallister; Stephen-Andrew Whyte

POSTGRADUATE DIPLOMA CLINICAL PHARMACY - Sameh Mansour Mohamed Youssef

POSTGRADUATE DIPLOMA CLINICAL PHARMACY PRACTICE (COMMUNITY) - Natalie Anne Drummond; Anna Elizabeth Durbin; Oluwayemisi Suwabat Kwakye-Manu; Misha Ramesh Makanji; Louise Purvis; Carol Anne Robertson; Benjamin Kim Spencer; Elaine Margaret Townshend

POSTGRADUATE DIPLOMA CLINICAL PHARMACY PRACTICE (HOSPITAL) - Sandra Banos; Michelle Beirne; Camelia Florentina Constantinescu; Siobhan Crowe; Suzanne Crowe; Lorna Mary Dillon; Ciara Flanagan; Patrick Hilley; Denusha Kuganathan; Benjamin Kwakye-Manu; Louise Elizabeth Morrison; Victoria Rose Nicol; Christopher Anthony Smillie

POSTGRADUATE CERTIFICATE CLINICAL PHARMACY PRACTICE - Sofia Bashir; Joseph Burke

POSTGRADUATE CERTIFICATE RESEARCH METHODS - Maria Kopsida; Kennedy Ajiroghene Osakwe Adakporia

MASTER OF PHARMACY; Kokouvi Keli Adodo; Asirah Akhtar; Sahar Akhtar; Wafa Al Balushi; Hassan Alrahow; Misbah Arshad; Harvie Baker-Flanagan; Mohammedadnan Balapatel; Harry Jack Ballantyne; Daniel George Ballingall; Andrea Bell; Eva Bland; Kendal Jay Boyd; Ellen Jane Bruce; Kirsten Lindsay Buchan; Stuart Patrick Burns; Andrew McGregor Cameron; Jill Carnegie; Christopher Hoa Nam Chan; Callum John Chapman; Rachel Helen Christie; Jennifer Cooper; Louise Mary Crowley; Alison Cuthill; Niamh Margaret Rose Daly; Alison Dickie; Gilchrist Andrew Neachdainn Docherty; Danielle Doherty; Elizabeth Anne Dunbar; James Jacob Raymond Ellick; Khezer Aftab Farooq; Dawn Karen Ferguson; Stacey Forsyth; Ellen Jo Fowler; Rosemary Anne Gaw; Susan Gleeson; Kathryn Glover; Claire Alexandra Green; Rebecca Grieve; Katriona Hall; Roxanne Hamedi; Conner Harsant; Ryan Scott Headspeath; Stephanie Henderson; Claire Elizabeth Hewitt; Maxine Kelly; Hiba Shihab Eldin Osman Khogali; Lucy Rachel Liversedge; Yu Rong Low; Sarah Anne MacFarlane; Russell MacKay; Andrew William Robert Maguire; Sinitta Kaur Malhi; Divya Malhotra; Simran Mann; Vera Marmarova; Laura Jane McClelland; Morven McGuigan; Andrew James McKechnie; Karis McKibbin; Lauren McLauchlan; Abbey McLean; Shannon Mellis; Eilidh Catrina Milliken; Ross Milne; Alexandra Rose Murdoch; Ciara O’Shea; Jenna Margaret Pollock; Emma Pritchard; Kirsten Pritchard; Wong Siew Rong; Duncan Wyatt Ross; Jemma Louise Ross; Joanne Sandra Ryrie; Kea Scott; Sarah Christina Scott; Caitlin Irene Sedgeworth; Sana Sharif; Sarah Anne Skene; Michael David Anthony Smith; Morven Smith; Hardev Sond; Louise Elizabeth Summers; Lewis David Sutherland; Ewan Lachlan Swann; Vijay Vetri Thiruppugazh; Amanda Louise Thomson; Ashley Victoria Thomson; Hannah Thomson; Julia Elizabeth Thomson; Morium Uddin; Brogan Jane Watson; Keira Watson; Anna Jasmine Wedderburn; Hannah West; Ashleigh Kathryn Wilson; Carol Wong; Raisa Zahida Yasin

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE APPLIED BIOMEDICAL SCIENCE - HONOURS - Katarina Barisova; Kelsey Jade Burnett; Ceri Colman; Ellis Ferguson; Nikole Veronica Gray; Yvonne Hannibal; Findlay Alexander Steven; Thomas Tregellas; Julia Ruth Warke

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE BIOMEDICAL SCIENCE - HONOURS - Stephanie Barr; Emma Louise Buchan; Dianne Helen Duncan; Alison MacDonald; Anita Sham; Melissa Laura Wallace

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE BIOSCIENCE WITH BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES - HONOURS - Maren Bohmer; Ambre Chapuis; Djamila Haramustek; Tang Cam Phung Pham; Neil David Slaven; Kirsten Manuela Torge; Cordula Levke Zimmer

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE FORENSIC AND ANALYTICAL SCIENCE - HONOURS - Daniel Douglas Best; Andrew Brandon; Jade Alana Bruce; Johanna Buss; Brendan Stewart Campbell; Alana Elizabeth Colville; Lucy Cuthbert; Ashleigh Andrea Donald; Rhys Elmslie; Nadine Gawlitta; Leanne Gray; Florian Haid; Charles Thomas Hawco; Sarah Hay; Emma Louise Evelyn Hourston; Melanie King; Jessica Mary Ellen Knox; Greg Lawson; Paris Georgina Longden; Claire Elisabeth MacKenzie; Alethea Shay Madgett; Alison Martin; Callum Martin; Jayne Ann McCaskill; Christopher Mellis; Kim Marie Miller; Paul Scott Mitchell; Christopher Park; Gillian Grace Paterson; Simone Rink; Stephanie Martha Schlappa; Aileen Simpson; Mirela Slavova; Shannon Southworth; Hayleigh Stephenson; Glenn Whyte; Martina Wilhelm; Claire Williamson; Jessica Wilson; Lindsay Anne Wylie; Patrycja Bernarda Zwadlo

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE NUTRITION - HONOURS - James Cairns; Hollie Cumming; Katherine Anne Keddie; Jamie Campbell Brockie McGill; Judith Stuart

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE NUTRITION AND DIETETICS - HONOURS - Ami Jane Doris Barber-Fleming; Caoimhe Dempsey; Lia Catriona Garden; Caroline Holland; Chui Ying Lam; Laura Marie Shanahan; Jennifer Stewart; Siobhan Stewart; Rebekah Tansey; Catherine Elizabeth Tosh; Dimitra Verra

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE APPLIED BIOMEDICAL SCIENCE - Tara Christina Tully

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE BIOSCIENCE WITH BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES - Anais Hannouz

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE FORENSIC AND ANALYTICAL SCIENCE - Jamie Ann Arthur; Leanne Cowie

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE NUTRITION - Sarah Esson; Mathilde Labeaut; Olivier Renaudin

DIPLOMA OF HIGHER EDUCATION BIOMEDICAL SCIENCE - Rosemarie Claire Agus

CERTIFICATE OF HIGHER EDUCATION BIOMEDICAL SCIENCE - Natalie Ann Thomson

CERTIFICATE OF HIGHER EDUCATION FORENSIC AND ANALYTICAL SCIENCE - Liza Vinhoven

CENTRE FOR OBESITY RESEARCH AND EPIDEMIOLOGY

POSTGRADUATE CERTIFICATE RESEARCH METHODS - Dean Stephen Leighton

DEPARTMENT FOR THE ENHANCEMENT OF LEARNING, TEACHING AND ASSESSMENT

POSTGRADUATE CERTIFICATE HIGHER EDUCATION LEARNING AND TEACHING - Sadullah Errol Luders; Una Lyon; Thomas Gerard McEvoy; Vanessa Anne Smith

SOFTWARE firm Craneware today said its annual sales and profits will be higher than last year after securing record contract levels.

The Edinburgh-based firm, which specialises in billing software for US hospitals, signed contracts worth $72.5 million (£46.4m) in the year to 30 June, up from $71m a year earlier.

Although the Aim-quoted company said “the vast majority” of revenues from the deals will benefit future years, it still expects to deliver sales of between $44.5m and $45m for the year, up from $42.6m last time.

Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation are forecast in the range of $14m to $14.5m, compared with $13.1m a year ago.

Chief executive Keith Neilson said: “We are delighted with the continued level of strong sales throughout the period that underpin the group’s financial and operational performance.

“We believe this continues to demonstrate our solutions’ importance in supporting US hospitals as they transition towards value-based healthcare.”

Craneware’s full-year results are due on 8 September.