A 19-year-old woman has been arrested and charged in connection with shoplifting, road traffic offences and possession of a bladed weapon in Edinburgh.
This follows a report of shoplifting in the St James Square area of the city around 2.30pm on Saturday, 4 July, 2026. The woman was traced in her car in the new town area.
She is due to appear at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on a later date.
A 17-year-old male youth was arrested in the Chambers Street area on Wednesday, 8 July, and has been charged in connection with shoplifting offences in Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Glasgow.
He is due to appear at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on a later date.
Sergeant Barry Mercer said: “We work closely with partners and retailers as part of our Shopwatch scheme where information is shared when a crime takes place or suspicious activity is seen.
“It means officers can respond quickly to ongoing incidents with the support of Police Scotland’s Retail Crime Taskforce.
“Retail crime has a negative impact on businesses and we urge anyone with information to contact us on 101.”
Courts will be given tougher powers to impose Football Banning Orders (FBOs) in Scotland to include specific offences in an effort to improve the matchday experience and safety at games.
It comes as the analysis of a consultation on FBO legislation has published.
There were 903 responses to the consultation, with organisations such as the SFA, SPFL and Police Scotland supporting an extension of the use of FBOs. Whilst a majority of fans who responded expressed concerns about expanding FBOs, fans also raised concern around the increase in the use of pyrotechnics and some reported witnessing serious incidences of inappropriate behaviour.
In response, Ministers will introduce legislation in the Scottish Parliament which will include targeted and specific measures to strengthen FBOs to cover behaviour such as the use of pyrotechnics, pitch invasions and throwing missiles.
Community Safety Minister Kirsten Oswald said: “The vast majority of football fans attend matches to support their team and are a credit to their clubs.
“However, a small minority are compromising the fan experience and the safety of players, officials and all in attendance through anti-social and criminal behaviour.
“Recent high profile incidents involving pitch invasions and the continued use of pyrotechnics demonstrate the challenges the police, football authorities and clubs face and have to deal with. This is why we will give courts more effective powers through Football Banning Orders to target dangerous and abusive behaviour.
“Football is our national sport, and we want to make sure it is a safe and enjoyable environment for all and that is what we aim to achieve by introducing legislation.”
Football Banning Orders were introduced in Scotland as part of the Police, Public Order and Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2006.
Currently in Scotland, an FBO is available to the courts when three factors are present:
A person is convicted of an offence which involved the person engaging in ‘violence or disorder’;
The offence was related to a football match; and
The court considers that making an FBO would help prevent ‘violence or disorder’ at or in connection with football matches
Leith has been named among the first-ever UK Town of Culture 2028 shortlist, marking a major achievement for the community and everyone who has helped showcase the area’s unique history, creativity and culture.
The UK Town of Culture is a new UK Government initiative celebrating the contribution towns make to the UK’s cultural identity. The inaugural competition attracted 398 applications from across the UK, with just 15 towns selected to progress to the next stage.
Tracy Gilbert MP has welcomed the announcement and praised the dedication of local organisations, community groups and residents who worked together to develop Leith’s bid.
Tracy Gilbert MP said:“Leith is a place like no other, with a proud history, a vibrant cultural scene and an incredible community spirit.
“I want to thank every local organisation, community group and individual who has given their time, energy and passion to help bring this bid together. The dedication, creativity and commitment shown by everyone involved has been so remarkable.
“Being shortlisted as one of only 15 towns from almost 400 applications is a fantastic achievement and a testament to the hard work of everyone who has played a part in telling Leith’s story.
“I am incredibly proud of Leith and delighted to see the community’s efforts recognised on a national stage. I look forward to continuing to support the bid as it moves forward to the next stage.”
As a shortlisted town, Leith will now move forward in the competition and receive a £60,000 bid development grant to help strengthen its application.
271,341 drivers across 33 police force areas caught driving at 40mph or more on 30mph roads last year
RAC backs new Stop Excessive Speeders campaign in calls for Government to introduce Intervening Intelligent Speed Assistance technology (IISA), to help prevent reoffending
Seven-in-10 police forces caught drivers travelling at twice the speed limit or more on 30mph roads last year, new data analysed by the RAC has found.
Findings from a Freedom of Information request made to the UK’s police forces show the truly terrifying speeds some people are prepared to drive at that put everybody at risk. One driver was caught at 89mph on a 20mph stretch of the B5129 in Deeside, north Wales; another at 114mph on a 30mph road in Aylestone, Leicestershire – the latter close to a primary school, although luckily the driver was caught in the middle of the night.
Other shocking examples of truly excessive speeds on 20mph roads in the daytime included someone clocked at 64mph at around 10.45am in Halifax, West Yorkshire, a 60mph speed recorded in Southport in Merseyside, and a driver logged at 48mph in Alderley Edge in Cheshire around 3pm. Even faster speeds were recorded in the middle of the night by forces in other parts of the country, including 72mph in Holland Park in London and 68mph on the B3122 in south Bristol.
On 30mph roads, a speed of 95mph was recorded at around 3pm by a driver in Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset and by another on a stretch of the A5 east of Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire. Elsewhere, a speeder was clocked at 80mph close to schools in Culcheth, Cheshire at around 3pm, and another at 79mph just after 4pm on a road in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria. Again, higher speeds still were recorded by other forces on roads at night – such as 111mph on the A3400 in Hockley Heath in the West Midlands, and 109mph on the B6145 in Bradford.
In total, across 33 UK police force areas, 271,341 drivers were caught driving at 40mph or more on 30mph roads – speeds of at least 33% higher than the posted limit – while across 28 forces 32,548 drivers were caught at 30mph or more on 20mph roads.
When it comes to the highest overall speeds last year, vehicles were recorded travelling at 161mph by police forces on the A5 in Bayston Hill, Shropshire and on the M6 southbound between Stoke-on-Trent and Stafford. Other drivers were caught at 160mph on the M6 in Cheshire, 158mph on the A14 in Suffolk and 155mph on the A38 Sutton Coldfield bypass in the West Midlands.
Speed has for a long time been one of the main factors in fatal collisions on Great Britain’s roads. Official data for 2024 – the latest year data is available – shows that speed was a factor in most (58%) fatal collisions, with drivers or riders exceeding the speed limit behind a fifth (20%) of all such collisions.
In the same year, 185 people lost their lives where breaking the speed limit played a role. Such collisions are most likely to take place in the summer months and on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
Previous RAC research found that four-in-five drivers said they regularly see people driving at excessive speeds on 20mph and 30mph roads, while 55% said they believe there is a ‘culture of speeding’ in the UK. Separate research last Autumn found that 86% of drivers polled support new measures to combat excessive speeding, of which 55% strongly support action.
The RAC recently responded to several Government consultations following the publication in January of the Road Safety Strategy, the first in over a decade.
It has welcomed commitments to reduce the number of people killed and seriously injured on the roads by 65% by 2035, and the acknowledgment that excessive speeding should not go unchallenged.
However, the RAC believes clear focus must now be placed on tackling those drivers that represent the biggest risk on the roads, including those that are prepared to drive at such high speeds – especially on low (20/30mph) roads – and those that habitually reoffend.
RAC senior policy officer Rod Dennis said: “Our analysis shows some of the frankly chilling speeds some people are prepared to drive at – and these are just the cases the police are aware of.
“The fact that some were recorded in residential areas, even near schools, in daytime hours when others might well have been using the roads, underlines just how dangerous this kind of behaviour is. Such roads will almost certainly be well used by pedestrians and cyclists, so it doesn’t bear thinking about what travelling at such high speeds could have led to.
“There is a lot of work to be done. Despite drivers and riders exceeding speed limits being a factor in an increasing number of fatal road collisions, it’s clear that some people remain oblivious to the incredibly severe risk that driving too fast poses. The latest official data shows there were more than 300 fatal collisions in just one year where speeding was a factor – tragedies which are, on the whole, entirely avoidable given speeding is a choice the driver makes.
“We very much look forward to the Government’s response to its consultations on the Road Safety Strategy. New casualty reduction targets and an update to councils on setting local speeds are welcome, but a greater focus tackling the problem of excessive speeding and repeat offending is also desperately needed.
“Together with the Stop Excessive Speeders campaign, we therefore strongly urge the Government to introduce Intervening Intelligent Speed Assistance technology – which can prevent a vehicle from exceeding the limit – to reduce the number of drivers on our roads that puts all of us at risk.”
National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for roads policing Chief Constable Jo Shiner said: “The fact that a majority of drivers now believe there is a culture where speeding is acceptable reflects a deeply embedded issue in driver behaviour.
“We must reset expectations and make it clear that safe, lawful driving is a shared responsibility.”
The case for Intervening Intelligent Speed Assistance (IISA) technology – as made by the RAC in its response to the Government’s Road Safety Strategy consultation:
Speeding in the UK is a widespread and persistent problem that continues to drive death, serious injury and wider social and economic harm on a significant scale. In reported road collisions in Great Britain in 2024, 29,467 people were killed or seriously injured, and 128,272 casualties of all severities were recorded.
Further, RAC research in October 2025 found that 86% of drivers polled support new measures to combat excessive speeding, of which 55% strongly support action.
The Government has recently consulted on mandating Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) in new vehicles that in future are sold in Great Britain. Though a welcome addition to road safety, the impact of ISA has a limit as it only advises the driver of a speed limit breach and can be overridden at will.
Intervening ISA (IISA) is an aftermarket technology that limits throttle input when required to ensure compliance with the speed limit and can only be overridden in limited and monitored circumstances.
The RAC is therefore supporting the new Stop Excessive Speeders campaign, and its call for Intervening ISA to be considered for its potential to significantly improve road safety by specifically targeting those most dangerous offenders.
Intervening ISA should be used as a specific mandatory judicial intervention, in coordination with the DVLA, for drivers who persistently and dangerously exceed the speed limit, despite multiple other interventions.
Intervening ISA would be used as a condition of retaining or regaining a licence and paid for at the cost of the motorist, with subsidies provided for low-income motorists to ensure they are not excluded on the basis of exceptional financial hardship.
To provide a more robust evidentiary basis for the widespread implementation of intervening ISA, specifically as a judicial intervention for repeat or serious speed offenders, the RAC – together with the Stop Excessive Speeders campaign – supports calls for a legislated intervening ISA pilot programme for Great Britain, with mirrored provision for Northern Ireland.
Millions of calls were likely mishandled over nearly a three-year period, preventing or delaying customers from switching away to a better deal.
Investigation uncovers deliberate call-dropping tactics, excessive and unnecessary call transfers and putting customers repeatedly on hold for no reason.
Commission scheme effectively encouraged and financially rewarded call centre agents for behaving in this way.
Ofcom has today fined Virgin Media £28 million for putting customers on millions of calls through unreasonable effort, hassle and difficulty when trying to switch to another provider.
In the UK’s competitive market, telecoms customers can choose from a wide range of providers, services and packages – often saving hundreds of pounds by switching to a new deal. The ability for customers to shop around, switch and save is particularly important given the current cost-of-living crisis facing UK households.
Our rules – known as General Conditions – are clear that the conditions or procedures telecoms providers have in place must not act as a disincentive for customers who wish to cancel their contract.
Having received significant volumes of complaints from Virgin Media customers reporting difficulties in cancelling their contracts – and following unsuccessful engagement with the company to address this issue – Ofcom launched an investigation to establish whether the company had complied with its duties.
What our investigation found
Our investigation uncovered systemic and repeated failings in Virgin Media’s contract termination procedures. Millions of calls made by customers between 1 January 2022 to 11 September 2024 were likely to have been mishandled by call agents in order to delay or prevent customers from cancelling and switching to a competitor.
In summary:
Virgin Media split its retention team into two ‘tiers’ of agents. Only agents in the second tier were able to process cancellations. This resulted in over a million callers being made to repeat their request to at least one further agent to stand any chance of having their cancellation processed.
Customers reported making multiple attempts to cancel through repeated calls to the retention team and through other contact channels, and in some cases resorted to cancelling their direct debits, which led to further difficulties such as missed payments impacting their credit score.
We uncovered widespread and, in many cases, deliberate mishandling of calls by retention team agents. Behaviours and tactics included: repeated attempts to pressure customers to stay, even when they had made it clear they wanted to cancel; unnecessary or excessive call transfers to other departments; excessively, unnecessarily and repeatedly keeping customers on hold; deliberately dropping calls; and failing to process cancellations on the system.
Virgin Media effectively encouraged the use of these behaviours to deter customers from cancelling by financially rewarding them through its commission scheme. Its training and guidance for agents also failed to prevent these behaviours while inadequate quality assurance and monitoring meant they were often overlooked. Additionally, the company did not have proper oversight of its third-party call centres or quality monitoring.
As a result, we have concluded that Virgin Media’s two-tier cancellation process and agent behaviours caused customers on millions of calls unreasonable effort, hassle or undue difficulty when trying to cancel.
These failings likely acted as a disincentive to switch for customers across millions of calls – delaying or preventing them from taking advantage of a competitor’s offer, against Ofcom’s consumer protection rules.
Financial penalty
As a result of Virgin Media’s serious failures, Ofcom has fined the company £28 million, which will be passed on to HM Treasury.
In setting the penalty amount we took into consideration, among other things:
the significant harm experienced by those customers affected;
Virgin Media’s repeated failures to act to identify and prevent the harm;
the financial gain the company is likely to have made;
Virgin Media’s repeated failure to comply with our information gathering process during our investigation; and
the fact the company has been fined previously for a breach of the same rule in 2018.
The penalty includes a 30% reduction on what it otherwise would have been, given Virgin Media admitted its failing and agreed to settle the case.
Natalie Black, Ofcom’s Group Director, Infrastructure and Connectivity, said: “The facts are clear. Virgin Media made it harder for customers to cancel their contracts and then did not fully cooperate with our investigation. As a result, we are levelling our largest ever fine under our consumer protection rules for direct harm to consumers.
“Today, we are sending a clear message that any provider who wilfully acts against the interests of their customers will pay a heavy price. And by introducing the One Touch Switch Process, we‘ve put in place further safeguards to prevent this from happening again.”
Virgin Media has made a number of important changes, including to improve its commission scheme, training and quality assurance and monitoring.
As part of our decision, we are requiring Virgin Media to check that every affected customer who complained has received the compensation or other remedies they were entitled to. The company must complete this in six months.
Builds on five years of success engaging more than 20,562 visitors and 2,536 young people
Jupiter Artland Foundation has announced the launch of Jupiter+ Nation in Dumfries, the fifth iteration of its pioneering youth and community engagement programme and the culmination of five years of sustained investment in young people, artists, and communities across Scotland.
Beginning in Dumfries and designed to grow nationally, Jupiter+ Nation marks a significant evolution in Jupiter Artland’s commitment to widening access to contemporary art and creating meaningful pathways into creative careers.
Running in Dumfries at Loreburne Shopping Centre, High Street, Dumfries from 31 July, with an associated programme from 28 August, the project transforms a vacant former estate agent’s office inside the Loreburne Shopping Centre into a free-to-visit contemporary art space, anchoring an ambitious free learning programme expanding nationwide.
The exhibition and programme ends on 6 December 2026.
Since launching in Perth in 2022, Jupiter+ has transformed vacant high street spaces into sites for world-class contemporary art, creative learning, and youth engagement. Across Perth, Ayr, Paisley and Dundee, the programme has welcomed more than 20,500 visitors and engaged 2,536 learners through exhibitions, workshops, artist commissions, mentoring and youth development initiatives.
What began as a local experiment has become a nationally significant programme, demonstrating how contemporary art can create opportunity, confidence, and cultural participation in communities across Scotland.
Jupiter+ Nation now becomes the umbrella identity and long-term home for this work: a permanent national platform connecting young people, artists and communities through contemporary art.
After Dumfries, the programme will continue to create opportunities for participation, artist development and cultural engagement, building a growing national network across Scotland.
The exhibition in Dumfries this season features Growing Pains, a striking, site-specific multimedia installation by award-winning artist Lindsey Mendick.
Referencing her own teenage years in the early 2000s, Mendick transforms the former commercial office space into a haunting, humorous, and deeply immersive environment exploring the uncertainty, awkwardness, and social hierarchies of adolescence.
Using the metaphor of an estate agency, a business built entirely on peddling aspirational lifestyles, the installation features an intricate, spiralling office desk displaying eight Alice-in-Wonderland-style ceramic dollhouses bursting with teenage figures. The exhibition explores themes of social mobility, identity, and the transitional thresholds of youth, alongside an accompanying video piece.
Nicky Wilson, Director, Jupiter Artland, said: “The programme’s fifth year marks a major milestone. Through artist-inspired learning, youth leadership programmes, residencies and public commissions, Jupiter+ has worked with schools, colleges, universities, and community organisations across the country, helping young people develop creative skills, discover new pathways, and build confidence in their own voices.
“Independent evaluation across the programme shows strong evidence of impact.
“In Dundee, participants reported feeling more confident sharing their own experiences through creative work, and 73% of learners said they felt more inspired to use creativity to speak up about issues that matter to them after taking part.
“More than three quarters agreed that exhibitions like Jupiter+ create spaces where young people can ask big questions and imagine new futures.”
At the core of Jupiter+ Dumfries is a barrier-free educational outreach offer.
As in every iteration of Jupiter+, every secondary school, college, and community group in Dumfries and Galloway is invited to take part in fully funded, tailored learning sessions.
The launch of this national programme comes as the Milburn Review brings renewed national attention to the scale of youth disengagement across the UK.
Jupiter+ Nation stands as five years of working evidence that creative participation can open new pathways for young people, an approach aligned with Scotland’s Developing the Young Workforce strategy and the widening-access ambitions of A Blueprint for Fairness.
Participant feedback reflects the programme’s wider ambition. One young person commented after their experience: “I learned to not be afraid of stepping out of my comfort zone. Have confidence in myself.”
Another described the experience as “liberating and freeing”, highlighting the importance of creativity as a space for experimentation, expression and personal growth.
Exhibition Dates:
31 July – 6 December 2026 (Tuesday to Friday for booked sessions; extended public opening hours to coincide with holidays and regional events).
Location: Loreburne Shopping Centre, High Street, Dumfries, DG1 2BD. Jupiter Artland
Alongside its learning programme, JUPITER+Dumfries presents a public programme of free artist-led events that encourages creativity, dialogue and civic participation across the region. To be announced.
Picnic & Rounders 
