Proposed FOI reform plans “not currently workable”, says Committee

Proposed freedom of information (FOI) reforms are not workable, according to a new report published last week by Holyrood’s Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee.

In its Stage 1 report on the Freedom of Information Reform (Scotland) Bill, the Committee has found that while there is a clear need to update FOI law, elements of the Bill have not been sufficiently considered or laid out.

Introduced by Katy Clark MSP, the Bill aims to update the original 2002 Act by introducing a presumption in favour of disclosure and establishing a new duty for public authorities to publish information proactively.

Other proposals include creating a new mechanism to bring more bodies under FOI rules and removing the First Minister’s power to ‘veto’ certain decision of the Scottish Information Commissioner.

The Committee is not persuaded that the Bill in its current form would deliver the intended change. It has particular concerns about how workable the proposals are and the financial and resource implications for public bodies.

Instead, the Committee concludes that the Scottish Government should be taking a lead in bringing forward its own proposals for freedom of information reform.

Speaking as the report was published, Committee Convener Martin Whitfield MSP said:  “Freedom of information is a fundamental part of how our public services in Scotland are delivered. The work done by Katy Clark MSP establishes a clear need to update the law that underpins it. 

“However, our Committee is not convinced that this Bill is the right approach in its current form.

“The Scottish Government should be taking action to develop an updated and forward-looking FOI regime for Scotland. If not, a committee bill may be the most appropriate legislative means to deliver this complex and important reform.”

Elements of the Bill highlighted in the Committee’s report include:

  • Presumption in favour of disclosure: The report makes it clear that the Committee doesn’t think it necessary to legislate for making openness the default in releasing public information. It suggested that efforts to improve culture and practice within organisations is a preferable approach.
  • Proactive publication duty: the Committee is not persuaded that proposals to replace the current scheme with a rule that requires public bodies to publish information more broadly and pro-actively would work in practice.
  • Designation of public bodies: The Committee is unconvinced that the proposal for the Parliament to make bodies subject to FOI rules is workable.
  • There remains significant uncertainty about the financial and resource implications for public bodies.

Positives of pavement parking ban in Edinburgh praised two years on

The benefits of the pavement parking ban have been hailed by Guide Dogs Scotland and Living Streets Edinburgh. The Council previously worked with these organisations to lobby for the introduction of controls in Scotland.

January 29th marks two years since enforcement began against parking on pavements, at dropped kerb crossing points and double parking. Edinburgh was the first local authority in Scotland to enforce these rules.

The City of Edinburgh took this decision to make the capital’s streets safer for pedestrians and road users. Pavement parking particularly impacts people who use wheelchairs and mobility aids, those who are blind or partially sighted and people pushing prams or buggies. It also damages pavements, which are expensive to repair and become a trip hazard for everyone.

From enforcement beginning to date there were a total of 9,467 Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) issued for footway parking. Last year saw an overall reduction of over 700 PCNs; from 5,098 in 2024 to 4,369 in 2025.

Since enforcement began there has been an overall decreasing trend in PCNs being issued for pavement parking.  

There was a total of 3,497 PCNs issued for dropped kerb parking and 4,165 for double parking in the same period.

Transport and Environment Convener, Councillor Stephen Jenkinson said: “Since we first introduced these changes two years ago, we’ve seen drivers changing their parking habits accordingly, with the problem of pavement parking disappearing in many streets across Edinburgh.

“We brought the ban in to provide a safe and accessible environment for everyone, especially those with sight impairments, mobility issues or pushing buggies. We’ve also heard from many people who really appreciate clearer, wider pavements and who no longer need to walk on the road to avoid parked cars.

“I’m also grateful for the support we’ve had from groups including Living Streets and Guide Dogs Scotland, which has been key in helping us to deliver this positive change for our city.

“All drivers have a responsibility to park considerately, and where this would not cause an obstruction to the pavement or road. Whilst we ultimately want to see zero fines, the overall gradual decreasing trend shows we’re headed in the right direction.

“I’m proud that we prioritised making our streets as safe and accessible as possible – and that local authorities across Scotland have been looking to Edinburgh’s lead and implemented schemes of their own since.“

Niall Foley, External Affairs Manager at Guide Dogs Scotland, said: “The City of Edinburgh Council led the way on enforcing pavement parking prohibitions two years ago and now the majority of local authorities across Scotland have followed their example. 

“We commend the commitment of the City of Edinburgh Council to keeping pavements clear for pedestrians. People with sight loss tell us they can now get out and about in the capital more safely, without the fear of being forced on to the road by inconsiderate parking.

“We’re pleased to be celebrating two years of boosting the independence and safety of all pedestrians. Congratulations to Edinburgh on reaching this key milestone.”

 Living Streets Edinburgh Group Convener, David Hunter said: “The Council deserves credit not only for being the first in Scotland to apply the national ban on pavement parking, but also for adopting a “no streets exempt” policy.

“It’s encouraging that the Council has been consistent with the no exemptions approach, which ensures a level playing field for everyone – no parking on the pavement means just that. Enforcement has been handled well in general too.

“This been the most significant change to make Edinburgh a safer and more attractive city for pedestrians since the introduction of widespread 20mph speed limits.”

Academics gather to celebrate career of Edinburgh professor 

Endowed Chair of Rheumatology retires from University of Edinburgh

Professor Stuart Ralston retired from his position as Arthritis UK’s Endowed Chair of Rheumatology at the University of Edinburgh and a Festschrift event was held in his honour (January 29).  

Professor Ralston has had a decorated career in rheumatology, including holding the position as Arthritis UK’s Endowed Chair for over 20 years. His research focused on the management of bone and joint disease, with a special interest in Paget’s disease. 

Professor Ralston’s research has benefitted patients and influenced policy. His medical education contributions have benefitted students globally and his contribution to medicines regulation has saved many lives, notably through his oversight of emergency approval of COVID-19 vaccines as chair of the Commission on Human Medicines. 

He was recently (December 2025) duly recognised for these contributions by being awarded the Royal Society of Edinburgh Sir James Black Medal.  

Professor Ralston said: “A highlight of my career has been the work in Paget’s disease of the bone, looking at the genetic basis of the condition and doing clinical trials to establish optimal treatment strategies. 

“I’ve also enjoyed bringing in new people and seeing them make their own way over the years. It’s been a privilege. I have been lucky to reach the top of my profession. 

“While I will be sad to leave, I have still got some outstanding projects to finish off during my retirement and am looking forward to having more time to spend with my family and friends.” 

To commemorate his achievements Professor Ralston attended a Festschrift event, where his closest colleagues and collaborators gathered to share warm remarks and celebrate his contributions to the field. 

Arthritis UK’s Head of Research Strategy, Sarah Rudkin, attended the event and said: “Professor Ralston has led the field on the molecular and genetic basis of osteoporosis and Paget’s disease for the benefit of people living with these conditions.  

“We greatly value his long-standing relationship with Arthritis UK and the varied contributions that he has made to the work of the charity. It’s been a privilege to support him throughout his professional endeavours, and we wish him a joyful retirement.”  

Professor Cosimo de Bari, specialist in osteoarthritis and stem cell therapies, has been appointed the new Arthritis UK Endowed Chair of Rheumatology.  

Deborah Alsina MBE, Arthritis UK Chief Executive, said: “The position of Endowed Chair at Edinburgh was established to create a nucleus for rheumatology research. 

“Professor Ralston’s work has been a testament to our joint commitment to expanding knowledge, improving practice and bettering the lives of those who live who live with these often-debilitating conditions.  

“It has been an honour to endorse his successes from his pivotal research developments and clinical trials to his PhD mentorships. He has truly been instrumental in defining the contemporary landscape of rheumatology. 

“We are delighted to welcome Professor Cosimo de Bari to this prestigious position and are eager to support him as we journey together towards a cure.” 

Professor David Argyle, Head of the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, University of Edinburgh, said: “Established nearly 50 years ago, the Endowed Chair recognises the University’s long-standing excellence in the field of rheumatology.

“Professor Ralston has been central to this endeavour, advancing research to improve patient outcomes worldwide.

“As we celebrate his achievements and bid him a congratulatory farewell, we are equally thrilled to welcome Professor Cosimo de Bari to the position, and look forward to continuing our valued partnership with Arthritis UK to champion innovative research.” 

New Scottish Favourites products heading to Edinburgh Scotmid stores

Six Scottish food and drink suppliers are celebrating after being named winners of Scotmid’s Scottish Favourites competition, securing the opportunity to have their products listed in Scotmid stores in 2026. 

Launched as part of Scottish Food & Drink September 2025, the competition is designed to support local producers by raising their profile, opening routes into retail, and bringing innovative Scottish food and drink products to convenience shoppers in Edinburgh.

The recent competition, once again run in partnership with Scotland Food & Drink, attracted a strong field of entries from producers based across Scotland, reflecting the continued strength, diversity and quality of the nation’s food and drink sector. 

With “Innovation” set as the theme, producers were challenged to submit products that offered something new, imaginative and distinctive. From retro-inspired favourites and globally influenced flavours to on-trend dairy and healthier snacking options, this year’s winning line-up highlights the breadth of ideas currently shaping the market. 

Following a rigorous judging process, six suppliers were selected as winners. The successful suppliers, their locations and winning products are: 

  • The Gin Bothy (Angus) – Scottish Chilli Jam and Scottish Strawberry Jam 
  • Cosmo (Midlothian) – Margherita Pizzini and BBQ Chicken Pizzini Twin Pack 
  • Nudie Snacks (Glasgow) – Soured Cream & Chive and American BBQ Sweet Potato Chips 
  • PK Foods / Mr Singh’s (Glasgow) – Chicken Bhuna Curry and South Indian Garlic Chicken Curry 
  • Yester Farm Dairies (East Lothian) – Cottage Cheese and Luxury Soft Cheese 
  • Nakey Bakey (Fife) – Mixed Berry and Strawberry Mango Fusion Granola 

Each winning supplier will receive a Scotmid listing, with products expected to launch across selected stores during 2026, subject to final ranging and rollout plans. 

Steven Addison, Local Sourcing Manager at Scotmid, said: “Our Scottish Favourites competition has grown year on year and is now a recognised route to market for Scottish producers. As ever, selecting the winners was a real challenge, with a high standard of creativity and quality across the entries. 

“We’re proud to support local suppliers and help innovative brands take the next step in their retail journey. This year’s winners demonstrate just how dynamic and forward-thinking the sector is, and we’re looking forward to working with them as their products launch in our stores in 2026.” 

Angus Bell at Scotland Food & Drink, added: “Scottish Favourites continues to provide an important opportunity for ambitious producers to engage with retail and showcase their products to a wider audience. 

“Scotmid’s commitment to local sourcing and to championing innovation plays a valuable role in supporting the growth of Scotland’s food and drink sector and Scotland Food and Drink are delighted to have partnered with Scotmid again.  

“The winners combine creativity with commercial appeal. Whether reinventing familiar favourites or responding to emerging consumer demands, these businesses are helping to grow our brilliant food and drink sector in Scotland”  

Scotmid and Scotland Food & Drink would like to thank all producers who entered the competition and congratulate the winning suppliers on their success. 

High streets to receive £150 million to restore community pride

Multi-million-pound package to turn the tide on ailing high streets, targeted in places most in need of support

High streets with boarded up shop fronts and lacking essentials such as butchers, grocers and bakeries will be given a multi-million-pound boost.

The £150 million cash injection will be targeted in areas hit hardest in recent years, and most in need of being brought back together.

Part of the government’s path to renewal, it will help turn the tide on this decline and restore a sense of pride people feel in their high streets and local area – which serves as a vital meeting point for communities.

Communities will bring people back into their local high streets by supporting local, independent businesses, improve neglected shopfronts and open up empty units. This will be the first step in the government’s upcoming High Streets Strategy, announced earlier this week.

It will build action already taken to restore pride in our communities, empowering councils in England to say no to new betting shops and vapes stores, supporting more than a thousand local pubs that offer extra services for communities and rejuvenating over 330 of the most deprived communities through our Pride in Place programme.

This is renewal in action, led by the people who know their neighbourhoods best, and backed by the government which is choosing unity over division.

Communities Secretary Steve Reed said: “Our high streets are the beating heart of Britain — where communities come together and local businesses can grow.

“Town centres have suffered from high streets falling into decline, and that is why we’re taking action to turn the tide with this crucial investment and more to come.

“We have listened to what people are telling us and that’s why we’re giving them the power and control to breathe new life back into our high streets and restore the sense of pride communities feel, building on our transformational Pride in Place programme.”

More details on the High Streets Strategy, including how funding will be allocated to specific places, will be announced in the coming months. 

Other steps taken by the UK government to regenerate high streets include:

  • Introducing a new community right to buy through the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, giving local people greater power to save valued community assets like sports clubs and pubs. 
  • Ending ‘pub deserts’ by banning the loss of the last community facility in an area.
  • Action to tackle the proliferation of betting shops on high streets.

Tree Planting at Lauriston Farm

SATURDAY 7th FEBRUARY 11am – 1pm

Interested in supporting local biodiversity whilst spending a great morning outdoors? Join us for our next tree planting event, where we will be planting together and learning all about the importance of supporting local nature in our communities.

Let’s plant some trees and have some fun! 🌳

When: 7th February from 11 to 1pm

Where: Lauriston Farm, Edinburgh EH4 5EX

Registration: http://eventbrite.co.uk/…/tree-planting-event-tickets…

#treeplanting#edinburgh#nature

First Scottish patient enters ground-breaking lung cancer clinical trial

The first patient in Scotland recruited to a major research study has described it as “the light at the end of the tunnel” after he was diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer last year.

The TOURIST PRINCE trial is part of the world’s largest clinical trial using radiotherapy in the treatment of metastatic lung cancer, funded by a £3.4m grant from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).

The trial is looking at whether modern radiotherapy treatments can improve outcomes for patients with stage IV disease, who often have a poor prognosis and typically have about a year to live.

PRINCE is part of the wider TOURIST trial platform which is sponsored by The Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester and managed by Southampton Clinical Trials Unit.

81-year-old great-grandfather Robert Brown, a retired managing director from Glasgow, was diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in the summer of 2025. He said: “At the beginning of July, I had a cough which lasted for six weeks before I went to see the GP. He jumped on it right away and sent me for an X-ray at the New Victoria Hospital and it was then that I was diagnosed with lung cancer.

“I’ve had a decent life and lived pretty healthily for 81 years, so I suppose it’s just life, isn’t it? But when the team at the hospital told me about the trial and asked if I’d consider taking part, I went straight on to it. It’s the light at the end of the tunnel.”

Lung cancer is the 3rd most common cancer in the UK, but is the biggest cancer killer, accounting for 21% of cancer deaths annually.

Between 85 and 90 per cent of cases diagnosed are non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and nearly half of these cancers are diagnosed at a late stage when the disease has spread and is incurable, meaning treatment focuses on controlling symptoms and extending life, rather than curing patients.

TOURIST is the first trial in 20 years to look at how radiotherapy could benefit late-stage metastatic lung cancer patients.

It uses a technique called ‘VMAT’ (volumetric modulated arc therapy) which is a form of radiotherapy that uses multiple beams of varying strengths to treat cancer. A device called a linear accelerator (LINAC) delivers high-energy beams while rotating around the patient to treat the tumours.

Professor Matthew Hatton, Honorary Professor of Clinical Oncology at The University of Sheffield, who is the chief investigator for the TOURIST PRINCE trial, said: “Giving the radiotherapy in this way makes it very accurate, shortens the treatment time, and uses a lower overall dose of radiation.

“It means more cancer cells can be killed while also sparing healthy tissue around the organ. Previously this machine has only been used to treat patients with early-stage cancer that has not spread, but we are hoping to show that it could also have benefits for those with late-stage disease. If successful, this trial could change global clinical practice for treating advanced lung cancer.”

Robert, who has been married to his wife Caroline for 56 years and has two children, two grandchildren and two great grandchildren, said: “Being on the trial has been okay for me, I’ve had no issues so far.

“I am still keeping myself fit and strong, and despite my treatment I’m even continuing to go jogging. It feels good to be part of the trial and part of research. Research has got to help.”

The PRINCE trial is aiming to recruit 472 patients newly diagnosed with stage IV non-small cell lung cancer at hospitals across the UK. It first opened to recruitment in autumn 2024, but Robert is the first patient in Scotland to take part.

Lucy Badesha is a Senior Research Nurse at the New Victoria Hospital in Glasgow. She said: “As a satellite site of the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre, part of our mission at the New Victoria Hospital is to offer clinical trials to patients who may not be able to access them otherwise.

“We were delighted to hear that we had recruited the first TOURIST PRINCE participant in Scotland, and we hope to be able to continue to offer participation in this and other life-changing cancer clinical trials to patients living on the south side of Glasgow.”

PRINCE is one of two trials currently recruiting patients in the TOURIST platform, which has been set up to see if radiotherapy, alongside other treatments, improves outcomes and quality of life for lung cancer patients.

Nicky Downs, Senior Trial Manager for the TOURIST trial platform at the Southampton Clinical Trials Unit, said: “It is wonderful to see the first patient recruited to the PRINCE trial in Scotland, and we are so grateful to Robert, and to all the other patients who have agreed to take part in TOURIST, for helping further our research into this awful disease.

“We hope to be able to expand the platform in the coming months with new trials, allowing us to include even more patients, understand the disease better, and learn how we can control patients’ symptoms and improve survival.”

Dr David Woolf, consultant oncologist at The Christie and is the joint chief investigator for the TOURIST platform, said: “The TOURIST trials represent a huge shift in the way we potentially treat lung cancer patients and could bring additional benefit to patients undergoing their standard treatments in the future.

“This is the first time we have delivered a trial in radiotherapy for stage IV NSCLC patients for two decades and techniques have advanced massively in that time. We therefore hope to provide enough evidence to change clinical practice globally, which could help up to a million people a year worldwide.”

Professor Anthony Gordon, Director of NIHR’s Health Technology Assessment Programme, said: “Living with late-stage lung cancer is difficult and challenging for patients and their families.

“This important trial demonstrates innovation by harnessing the latest radiotherapy treatments aiming to improve care for people with this disease to help ease their symptoms and improve outcomes and life expectancy.

“This trial demonstrates NIHR’s mission to drive life-changing research for the health and wealth of our society and ensuring more people can get involved in research. Our aim is to help new treatments reach patients earlier, helping them lead healthier and happier lives, while reducing the burden on the NHS.”