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Amnesty International has called for a full review of how due diligence is conducted on arms companies in receipt of grants from Scottish Enterprise. In a letter to the Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes, Amnesty warned that current human rights due diligence procedures at Scottish Enterprise may not

Scotland's legal aid crisis is the subject of a new series in The Herald entitled Beyond Breaking Point. There is already a crisis in legal aid, but the next five to ten years could be catastrophic. The future looks equally grim when it comes to civil legal aid. How did we get here? What does this m

New facilities providing healthcare for people who have experienced sexual assault or rape, and a service for children and young people who have experienced harm and abuse, have been opened. The Sycamore Sexual Assault Response Coordination Service (SARCS) for adults in NHS Lothian was officially op

There has been a three per cent rise in domestic abuse incidents recorded by Police Scotland, according to new figures from the chief statistician. The police recorded 63,867 incidents of domestic abuse in 2023-24, an increase of three per cent compared to the previous year. This is the first year t

Amazon Prime is to remove parts of a Chilean TV series after reaching a "groundbreaking" settlement in a defamation case before the Irish courts. Solicitor Paul Tweed brought the High Court proceedings on behalf of Dr Jorge Segovia Bonet, a Spanish businessman who owns the Chilean football club Uni&

Police in Thailand were forced to barricade themselves into their station as their town came under attack from around 200 escaped monkeys. Special enclosures in Lopburi – around 100 miles north-east of Bangkok – are used to manage the local monkey population.

Scotland’s Migration Service, which provides information and advice for people, employers and investors, has been expanded. The service will support newcomers to settle in Scotland, help more people and employers to navigate the immigration system, and attract more working-age people to Scotla

Legislation to allow for the early release of prisoners has been published. The Prisoners (Early Release) (Scotland) Bill proposes that most prisoners serving sentences of less than four years would be released after serving 40 per cent of their sentence, rather than 50 per cent as at present. This

Blackadders LLP picked up three titles at the The Herald Law Awards 2024, with Bethany Buchanan-Webster winning the Up and Coming Award. The firm also triumphed in the Family and Child Law Team and the Employment and Pensions Team of the Year categories at a gala event in The Marriott Hotel in Glasg

Scotland's legal aid crisis looks like it could be "unsolvable" as more than a third of legal aid lawyers are set to retire in the next decade. There are currently 911 solicitors registered for legal aid – down from 1,084 in 2020, a drop of 16 per cent.

An independent commission is needed to improve integrity and effectiveness and tackle serious issues with honesty in the legal system, an expert investigating the Post Office scandal has said. Lawyers are aiding irresponsible decisions and there is abuse of confidentiality and legal professional pri

Westwater Advocates’ David Hay KC has successfully challenged needs assessments undertaken by Western Isles Council, under the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968, as being inadequately reasoned in judicial review proceedings in the Outer House of the Court of Session. Mr Hay appeared for the peti

Denmark's welfare authority risks discriminating against people with disabilities, low-income individuals, migrants, refugees, and marginalised racial groups through its use of AI tools to flag individuals for social benefits fraud investigations, Amnesty International has said in a new report. 

The High Court in London has begun hearing a legal challenge to the UK government's continued arms sales to Israel. The Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) and Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq originally brought the challenge against all weapons exports to Israel for use in Gaza.

Requirements for voter identification brought in by the previous UK government should be scrapped, the parliamentary business minister Jamie Hepburn has said. Mr Hepburn highlighted evidence from the Electoral Commission that the new requirements kept potential voters away from the ballot box at the