A TEAM of opticians in Edinburgh is celebrating after winning another coveted industry award.
Specsavers Morningside scooped the prize for Optical Assistant Team of the Year at the annual Optician Awards during a glittering ceremony at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London on Saturday 13 December.
The award comes a month after Specsavers Morningside, alongside its sister store Specsavers Cameron Toll, won the ‘Hearing Care Practice of the Year’ award at the inaugural Scottish Optical Awards last month.
The team, led by clinical director Michael O’Kane and retail director Joe Alubaid, were recognised for their commitment to making sure each customer feels special and maintaining a friendly atmosphere in the practice, as well as their passion for integrating new members of the team, developing staff and their work within the local community.
Michael says: ‘This is a brilliant award for a brilliant team. Our Optical Assistants are a vital part of Specsavers Morningside, serving our community with real pride.
‘Although our practice has grown significantly since opening in 2009, the team has never lost its personal touch.
‘They are an anchor within the community, knowing patients by name and consistently going above and beyond to ensure everyone feels comfortable, supported and well looked after.
‘They are fantastic examples of what Specsavers stands for, and I’m incredibly proud of them.’
Joe adds: ‘This recognition reflects the hard work and care the team puts in day after day.
“They support each other, welcome new colleagues and create an environment where people enjoy coming to work and customers enjoy coming in.
“Winning this award is well deserved and a real credit to everyone involved.”
The annual Optician Awards aim to celebrate the achievements of optics and audiology practitioners across the UK and Ireland, recognising excellence, innovation and impact within the profession.
Specsavers had twelve shortlisted entries spanning six categories in the running this year, including as finalist for the Eye Health Campaign of the Year alongside its charity partner Vision Care, which provides free eye care to homeless people across Scotland and the UK.
To learn more about the Optician Awards and view the full list, visit:
Specsavers Morningside is located at 85 Morningside Road and is open every Monday – Wednesday and every Friday from 9am – 6:30pm, every Thursday from 9:30am – 6:30pm and every Saturday from 9am – 6pm.
Heriot-Watt researcher awarded prestigious fellowship to develop ultra-sensitive quantum technology for cancer immunotherapy
A revolutionary quantum sensing project that could transform cancer treatment by tracking how immune cells interact with tumours has been awarded a prestigious £2 million Future Leaders Fellowship.
The four-year fellowship, funded by UK Research and Innovation, focuses on a critical problem: immune cells often fail when they encounter cancer tissue because the tumour environment disrupts their metabolism. The pathbreaking project could enable the development of improved patient-tailored cancer therapies and provide tools for earlier diagnosis and evaluation of anti-cancer drugs.
Dr Aldona Mzyk will use quantum sensors, devices that harness the properties of quantum physics to detect minuscule changes, to understand why current cancer immunotherapies work for some patients but not for others.
Quantum sensors can detect molecular changes inside living cells with extraordinary precision, measuring changes on length scales thousands of times smaller than the width of a human hair. Dr Mzyk’s project will use sensors as small as a single electron to probe magnetic signals from free radicals. These highly reactive molecules play crucial roles in cell metabolism and disease development.
The research addresses a major challenge in cancer treatment. While laboratory-engineered immune cells called CAR-T cells have successfully treated blood cancers like leukaemia and lymphoma, they work in less than half of cases for solid tumours like breast, lung or bowel cancer. This failure occurs because cancer tissue consumes available resources and produces metabolites that cause immune cells to malfunction.
Dr Aldona Mzyk is currently a researcher at DTU in Copenhagen and will join the Institute of Photonics and Quantum Sciences at Heriot-Watt University. She said: “Every minute, seventeen people in the world die from cancer. We know that immune cell failure comes from changes in their metabolism when they interact with cancer cells.
“To improve immune cell performance, we need to understand how to control these metabolic changes by monitoring free radical production inside the cells – essentially spying on how they behave. This requires incredibly fast and precise detection methods, which quantum sensors can provide for the first time.”
The multi-disciplinary project will combine quantum sensing with optical spectroscopy and microfluidics to create an integrated platform capable of tracking cellular metabolism in thousands of cells within seconds. The project aligns with the UK’s National Quantum Technology Programme and the goal of equipping the NHS with ultra-sensitive quantum sensors.
Professor Cristian Bonato, Principal Investigator for Heriot-Watt’s Nanoscale Quantum Sensing facility, based in the School of Engineering & Physical Sciences, said: “Quantum sensing is transforming medical diagnostics as its sensitivity, down to the single molecule level, enables us to detect disease early, which often leads to better treatment outcomes.
“At Heriot-Watt, we’re developing quantum sensors that achieve unprecedented precision, from imaging magnetic fields in nanomaterials to detecting small quantities of molecules relevant for biomedical research.
“Dr Mzyk’s fellowship represents exactly the kind of innovative and pathbreaking application that could revolutionise healthcare, in synergy with our partners in the “UK Quantum Sensing hub for Biomedical Research”.”
The Institute of Photonics and Quantum Sciences at Heriot-Watt is involved in four of the five quantum research hubs announced last year by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). Heriot-Watt leads the Integrated Quantum Networks Hub and participates in quantum research focused on sensing, imaging, timing, and biomedical applications.
Cabbies and small taxi companies to benefit as online minicab firms stopped from using niche scheme to avoid paying tax
Reform announced at Budget ensures everyday cabbies can compete fairly
Closure to bring in £700 million a year to help cut waiting lists, cut debt and borrowing, and cut the cost of living
Today (Friday 2 January) online mini cab firms have been barred from illegitimately using a niche scheme to avoid tax.
As announced at the Budget by the Chancellor, private hire vehicle operators in London will no longer be able to use the Tour Operators Margin Scheme – a niche tax scheme designed for tour operators and holiday coach trips – to significantly reduce the VAT they pay on fares.
This means that black cabs will no longer have to compete with online mini cab firms who are misusing this scheme to pay less VAT.
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, said: “We’re putting the brakes on the illegitimate use of a niche tax scheme to protect everyday cabbies.
“We’ll use the £700m a year this raises to deliver the country’s priorities – cutting the cost of living, cutting waiting lists and cutting debt and borrowing.”
Steve McNamara, General Secretary of the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association, said: “The Government’s decision to apply VAT to all private hire journeys is a landmark step for fairness and integrity in our industry.
“For too long, drivers and small operators paying the full 20% VAT have had to compete with online mini cab firms benefiting from a niche tax scheme.
“We welcome this move and commend the Government for taking decisive action.”
The Tour Operators Margin Scheme is a specialist VAT rule designed for genuine travel and holiday businesses, allowing them to pay VAT only on the profit they make on package trips, not the full fare, typically reducing the effective VAT rate to 4%.
First announced by the Chancellor at Budget 2025, today’s measure will prevent the small number of big companies accessing the Tour Operators Margin Scheme, as they have been doing.
By supporting fairer competition, the government is protecting around £700 million in revenue, helping deliver the public’s priorities – cutting waiting lists, cutting debt and borrowing, and cutting the cost of living.
Smaller operators outside London, where passengers book directly with drivers, and all black cabs will not be affected by this reform to the Tour Operator’s Margin Scheme.
You’ll be surprised at the range of ways the Council supports Edinburgh’s businesses to help them succeed.
Join us at the Assembly Rooms on 3 February 2026 to talk with our teams and some of our partner organisations that support businesses. It’s your chance to ask questions, share your thoughts, and learn more about how we work for, and with, businesses to make our city a better place.
Get answers to practical questions – from business rates and what licences you may need for new businesses and much, much more.
A glamorous, never-before-exhibited portrait ofQueen Maryand a miniature sleigh made of rock crystal will be among highlights on show in Scotland for the first time in a major exhibition opening this spring.
The Edwardians: Age of Elegance will explore the glitzy world of two of Britain’s most fashionable royal couples – King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, and King George V and Queen Mary – through their family connections, royal events, global travels and art collecting.
The exhibition will open in Edinburgh following a successful run in London and is the first Royal Collection Trust exhibition to explore the Edwardian era. It will bring together more than 150 items including fashion, paintings and books, as well as personal items such as jewellery, photographs and chinaware, more than half of which are on show in Scotland for the first time. Visitors will see works from the Royal Collection by many of the period’s most celebrated names, including Fabergé, Tiffany & Co,and Edward Burne-Jones, and depictions of famous faces including composer Sir Edward Elgar.
Curator Kathryn Jones said: ‘The Edwardian era was a golden age of glamour and parties, but it was so much more than that; it was a fast-paced period making great advances in technology.
Our royal couples wanted to make the most of it all, living lavishly and embracing new trends, before the sobering arrival of war. Throughout, they were collecting art as a way to hold onto tradition and capture the rapidly changing world around them. We hope that visitors to the exhibition will enjoy stepping back in time to this exciting period.’
In 1863, Queen Victoria’s eldest son Albert Edward married Princess Alexandra of Denmark. The marriage of the fashionable young couple – the future King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra – initiated a glamorous new era for the royal family, with Queen Victoria still in mourning and away from public life. Edward and Alexandra established a new, vibrant court filled with opulent balls, society events and contemporary art – a lifestyle continued by their son, the future King George V, and his wife Queen Mary.
Full-length portraits of the two Queens will open the exhibition, showcasing the spectacular fashions of the era. The portraits of Queen Alexandra by François Flameng, and Queen Mary by William Samuel HenryLlewellyn (which has never before been on public display) will be shown alongside marble busts of their husbands, Kings Edward and George. Both couples were fond of Scotland, with Edward having studied at the University of Edinburgh and George and Mary making regular visits and devotedly modernising the Palace of Holyroodhouse to make it once again suitable for royal entertaining.
Displays will evoke the interiors of the royal couples’ private residences, Marlborough House and Sandringham House, where the Edwardian fashion of filling every cabinet and covering every surface with small decorative objects or family photographs reigned.
A star object on display for the first time in Scotland is a paperweight shaped like a tiny 10cm-tall sledgewith a figure lying on it by Robert Colquhon. Thought to have been Scottish, Colquhon was agoldsmith based in Russia who made small-scale decorative objects from rock crystal and silver of snowy subjects like sleighs and bears on ice floes. Edward and Alexandra collected several of his works – with one of his sleighs appearing in a photograph of Alexandra’s desk in Marlborough House in the 1890s.
Visitors will also learn of the relationships linking the family to the rest of Europe. Fabergé was introduced to the British royal family through Alexandra’s sister Dagmar, who had married Alexander III, Tsar of Russia. The royal patronage caused the popularity of Fabergé to soar in the UK, and on show will be 21 items from the firm, including an ornate picture frame holding a photograph of Princess Louise, Duchess of Fife; a cigarette case famously given to Edward by his official mistress Mrs Keppel; and six miniature figures of the royal couple’s favourite animals on the Sandringham estate.
As enthusiastic patrons of the arts, the Edwardians embraced new artistic movements including Art Nouveau and Arts and Crafts, and the burgeoning medium of photography.
Alexandra was particularly taken with the drawings of the Pre-Raphaelite artist, Edward Burne-Jones, whose study for a larger painting inspired by Sleeping Beauty will be on display. A soft-focus photograph of Alexandrabyphotographer Alice Hughes was typical of her pioneering yet delicate style, and both are on display in Scotland for the first time.
Garden parties formed an essential part of the Edwardian social calendar, with the first taking place at the Palace of Holyroodhouse during the much-anticipated visit of George and Mary in 1911. Danish painter Laurits Tuxen had been introduced to Queen Victoria through her daughter-in-law Alexandra, and his painting of a garden party at Buckingham Palace captures the spirit of the joyous occasion.
Contributions to society were also celebrated through the founding of the Order of Merit in 1902 to recognise prominent figures in cultural, scientific or military life. George commissioned a portrait of each recipient – a tradition that continues to this day – and drawings of Sir Edward Elgar and the physicist Sir J.J. Thomson by Scottish artist William Strang will be on display for the first time in Scotland.
The turn of the century saw great improvements to methods of travel, and the Edwardian royals travelled further than any previous members of the royal family – collecting and receiving gifts as they went. In February 1901, George and Mary set sail for 10 months on HMS Ophir to open the new federal parliament in Melbourne, Australia. To mark the occasion, the ‘Ladies of Adelaide’ gave Mary a richly embroidered silk hanging featuring a eucalyptus tree and local varieties of irises and orchids.
George and Mary visited the Palace of Holyroodhouse in July 1914, only a few weeks before the outbreak of the First World War. The glamour of the Edwardian era was being eclipsed by a serious atmosphere of duty – a sentiment led by the King, as Herbert Arnould Olivier’s study of King George V and Frank O. Salisbury’s painting The Passing of the Unknown Warrior, King George V as Chief Mourner, Whitehall attest. Collecting had now become a way to honour the many sacrifices made in the Great War; a more restrained and dutiful monarchy had emerged.
The King’s Gallery will continue to offer £1 tickets for visitors receiving Universal Credit and other named benefits. Other concessionary rates are available, including discounted tickets for Young People, half-price entry for children (with under-fives free), and the option to convert standard tickets bought directly from Royal Collection Trust into a 1-Year Pass for unlimited re-entry for 12 months.
Average house prices in Edinburgh have risen to almost £355,000, according to a firm of independent solicitors and estate agents.
Lindsays says its average sale price in the capital during 2025 was £354,522 – up 2.6% on the previous 12 months (£345,310).
Its property market experts expect 2026 to be another year of similar price increases, with demand from homebuyers continuing to outstrip supply across the city.
Edinburgh-headquartered Lindsays believes the current city market remains strong, with properties generally selling at about their home report valuation level.
Maurice Allan, Managing Director of Residential Property at Lindsays,said: “There’s a good balance to the market right now. There’s no reason to suspect that’s going to change.
“The big issue that we always have in Edinburgh is lack of supply. There are always people moving here – it’s a place people want to be – but there are very few places to build new homes within the city itself. That creates a very particular dynamic to the local market.
“We expect 2026 to be much in line with the past 12 months. There are certainly no signs of a downturn.
“A market without extremes is always the healthiest. We want to see fluidity in the market, where it’s relatively easy to buy and relatively easy to sell. That’s what we have right now.”
Lindsays reported a busy end to the market in 2025, with a good number of prospects in the pipeline moving into this year (2026).
The firm also operates an estate agency in Dundee, where its average house price sale during 2025 was £217,751.
Chris Todd, Partner and Head of Residential Property at Lindsays,said: “One of the most significant factors that we’re going to see during 2026 will be around the cost of borrowing.
“We can expect a degree of certainty around interest rates. We do not expect any significant change in those.
“That provides a level of certainty, with mortgage lending fairly readily available. That all points towards a balanced, steady market for the next 12 months.”
According to the latest statistics from the UK House Price Index, the average price of a property in Scotland is £194,000, up 5.3% on the year.
“One old battered brown box was my life story of residential care – that was all I was worth.”
Survey reveals nine in 10 people left with questions or concerns after receiving their care records.
ICO launches ‘Better Records Together’ campaign with new resources to support both people with care experience and the organisations handling their records.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has called for further improvements across local authorities in Scotland after warning that many people trying to access their own care records are being let down.
Research from the ICO found that people are facing systemic and demoralising challenges when it comes to their care records.
Over two thirds (71%) of people struggled with poor communication from the local authority and 69% said the process took longer than expected – with one person still waiting sixteen years later.
When care records were received, over half (59%) did not receive enough information and nearly nine in 10 (87%) were left with questions or concerns.
John Edwards, Information Commissioner, said: “This is so much more than a request for personal information. These are people fighting to access their own biography – their own identity – that is in the custody of an organisation.
“It is a brave and emotional step, especially from people who have already been let down by the care system in Scotland. But these requests are too often met with cold bureaucracy, long delays and pages of unexplained redactions, which can have devastating consequences.
“This current picture is unacceptable – but there are many people who play a role in creating better records and better access. As the data protection regulator, we can bring clarity to how these roles work together to thread people’s stories.
“We can build a clear pathway by ensuring everyone has the tools they need – equipping organisations with the certainty and skills to handle requests with care and compassion, and empowering people with the confidence and support to advocate for their own rights.
“Real change must come from the top – so today I am calling on local authority leaders across Scotland to take action. We know frontline staff want to get this right but are struggling with lack of resource and guidance. Improving this process starts at the beginning – when a child enters the care system, their information should be recorded with their rights in mind, knowing that they may request it later. This will reduce the administrative burden and keep the person at the very heart of the process, so future generations do not face the same struggle.”
Jackie McCartney, care experienced campaigner and Ambassador for the Rees Foundation, said: “I can remember the social worker arriving with my care records – she carried one old battered brown box. That was all I was worth. That box was my life story of residential care, with sixteen years of my life inside.
“She told me not to worry – ‘there’s not a lot in there’ – but I wanted to talk to her. Because this total stranger knew more about my life than I did. She had read my story before I had, and decided what I could or could not see. These were my puzzle pieces of how and why I had become a child in care.
“I opened my box and looked inside. I can still feel the pain and disappointment. My records were not even in date order, with whole years of my life missing and no medical records. There were so many blank pages with nothing on, and so much information redacted.
“The whole process must have more compassion and care. I want organisations to see this is more than data, files and words on a page – this is real people’s lives and stories.”
John-george Nicholson said: “We understand who we are through stories. The ones we tell ourselves and the ones others think and write about us. Growing up in care, the state became my storyteller, taking on the role most people’s families play. My files hold many of those stories, yet for years they seemed to forget who I was.
“I first accessed my records at 22 – 126 pages. Almost 25 years later, I asked again and received more than 800. They are tough and often traumatic to read (when I first received them in the post, they came without warning), but they are also a kind of treasure chest: fragments of memory, windows into a past I’d tried to forget. At first, they broke me. But over time, they became maps, continually changing as I age – helping me understand, make sense of the damage, navigate the past and future, and see that it wasn’t my fault. I was just a kid in a broken system.
“But the system is still broken, and record-keeping is a critical element of this – our storytelling. Too often the whole child is lost in forms and reports, their voice minimised or unheard. That has to change. Every child in care deserves records that see them, protect them, and help them heal and thrive.”
Better Records Together
The ICO has launched its ‘Better Records Together’ campaign by publishing a suite of practical resources to help tackle the current issues. The campaign includes:
new standards for organisations providing clarity on how to handle requests with care, as well as good practice measures to better support people from the moment they enter the care system.
clear advice for people requesting their records to help them to navigate the process and access support.
UK-wide supervision pilot running across 2025/26, monitoring the performance of 19 organisations to drive improvements.
In a letter sent to senior leaders, the Information Commissioner has made clear that if improvements are not made, organisations may face regulatory action.
The ICO has been proactively engaging with all 32 local authorities in Scotland after receiving complaints of long delays when care records were requested. Many local authorities have seen increases in requests over the last few years in relation to Scotland’s Redress Scheme, where people who suffered abuse while in care can apply for redress using supporting documents such as care records.
Some improvements have already been made across many local authorities in Scotland following the ICO’s engagement, but these must be sustained and further improvements made.
The regulator is working with charities, advocacy groups and other third parties to ensure their support reaches those who need them most.
Nicola Killean, Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland, said: “The Information Commissioner’s Office’s campaign to support improved access to records by people with care experience is an important one. It is vital that children with care experience have access to their own records, in a way that is straightforward and easy for them to navigate.
“Children who have care experience have the same rights as every other child under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), but they also have extra safeguards. If a child can’t live with their family, this includes having the right to special protection and help.
“Care experienced children and young people have been clear over many years about the importance of proper recording of their time in care. It can help them come to terms with their experience, understand why decisions may have been made, and give them a sense of agency over their own lives. It supports children’s rights to identity, rights to a fair hearing and due process, and rights to respect for private and family life.”
Flora Henderson, Director, In Care Survivors Alliance, said: “In Care Survivors Alliance is heartened to see the publication of Information Commissioner’s Office latest guidance around care records.
This work is vital work in ensuring that people who are care experienced can access their records in a timely, supported and transparent way. We are aware how difficult information access requests can be for individuals, especially when lack of support can create a significant negative impact.
“As such, ICO’s guidance is of considerable value. We encourage all those who hold, create or respond to requests for care records to join the collective effort in empowering people to exercise their rights and access their records.”
Mary Glasgow, Chief Executive, Children First, said: “Children First supports the ‘Better Records Together’ campaign because people must be able to understand their past in a way that feels meaningful.
“For many care experienced people records are the only way to fill the gaps in their history and make sense of who they are. That’s why we prioritise recording children and families’ hopes and dreams, as well as meetings and support.
“We make sure that our historical records are as easy to access as possible. Records aren’t just paperwork, they are the threads that weave together the story of your life.”
A spokesperson for Who Cares? Scotland, said: “We welcome the Better Records Together project and are excited for the improvements to accessing records for Care Experienced people it will bring.
“We often hear from our members about the difficult and sometimes traumatic experience it can be to get access to their records and then read them. That’s why we’re proud to support the Information Commissioner’s Office with this new phase of their project.”
Visit the ICO’s Better Records Together webpage to access the resources and find out more about its work to support both people with care experience and the organisations that handle their records.
We are overwhelmed & humbled by messages of thanks, support & solidarity following our CEO’s decision to decline her MBE nomination.
As an organisation run by disabled people for disabled people it’s important we speak up & speak out about issues affecting us.
We’re on leave till 5th Jan & will respond to questions/requests asap.
Meantime, please check out our website, FB & Insta accounts which may answer queries on what we do, how to become a member, how we can help you, & how to support our work. https://gda.scot
Our latest ebulletin https://mailchi.mp/…/un-international-day-of-disabled… celebrates International Day of Disabled People and provides info about the Disability Equality Plan for Scotland & related Improving Access Fund (deadline 19.01.26)
“I am writing this letter to thank you for the proposed award of Member of the Order of the British Empire in the New Year 2026 Honours List for services to disabled people and to let you know that regrettably, I must decline at this time…” read Tressa Burke’s letterbelow:
