Edinburgh libraries to offer free, face-to-face advocacy under new national partnership

Drumbrae Library and Leith Library in Edinburgh have launched a new initiative which will deliver free, impartial advocacy to members of the public through a new partnership between the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC) and national charity Advice Direct Scotland.

The Edinburgh libraries will be included in the first phase of the programme, which will see trained advocates from Advocacy.scot – run by Advice Direct Scotland – offer in-person support in select public libraries throughout the country to help people access and deal with Social Security Scotland benefits, ensuring their voice is heard.

The new in‑library service will offer an accessible, face‑to‑face option for those who prefer a more personal interaction or who may face barriers to accessing online services.

The first phase of the programme will also launch in the following libraries:

  • Aberdeenshire: Fraserburgh Library
  • Clackmannanshire: Alloa Library
  • Dundee: Coldside Library, Lochee Library and Wellgate Library
  • East Lothian: Dunbar Library
  • Fife: Dunfermline Library, Kennoway Library, Kirkcaldy Library, Lochgelly Library, Methill Library, Rosyth Library and Rothes Halls Library
  • Glasgow: Bridgeton Library, Dennistoun Library, Elder Park Library, Maryhill Library, Mitchell Library, Pollock Library, Pollokshaws Library and Springburn Library
  • Highlands: Dingwall Library
  • Inverclyde: South West Library
  • Moray: Elgin Library
  • North Ayrshire: Arran Library and Kilwinning Library
  • North Lanarkshire: Coatbridge Library
  • South Ayrshire: Ayr Library
  • South Lanarkshire: Larkhall Library
  • West Lothian: Almondbank Library, Bathgate Library, Broxburn Library and West Calder Library

By embedding these services within trusted, familiar community spaces, the partnership aims to make it easier for people to access the help they need, while also strengthening engagement with local library services.

Visitors will be encouraged to become library members, connecting more people with books, digital resources, learning opportunities and community activities.

Alison Nolan, chief executive of SLIC, said: “Libraries are trusted public spaces that sit at the heart of communities, offering connection, learning and support to people of all ages. By partnering with Advice Direct Scotland, we can extend that support even further, ensuring that anyone who needs advice can access it easily, locally and without barriers.

“This collaboration strengthens the role of libraries as essential community anchors and helps build a more inclusive and resilient Scotland. Through their participation in the partnership, Edinburgh locals will have easier access to trusted advice, advocacy and guidance whenever they need it.”

Marjorie Gibson, operation director at Advice Direct Scotland, which runs Advocacy.scot, added: “Our mission is to ensure everyone in Scotland can access free, impartial advocacy when they need it most.

“Libraries are welcoming, familiar environments and bringing our advocates into these spaces will help us reach even more people in a way that feels comfortable and accessible.

“We’re proud to work with SLIC to expand our support and connect communities with the right guidance at the right time.”

To learn more, visit www.advocacy.scot or call 0808 196 8901.

Cragievar Square death: Man charged

A man has been charged in connection with the death of 44-year-old Vikki Soloman in Edinburgh.

Around 8.45pm on Monday, 20 July, emergency services were called to a property in Craigievar Square in the city and Vikki was found with serious injuries and pronounced dead at the scene.

The 46-year-old man was arrested a short time later and has now been charged.

He is due to appear at Edinburgh Sheriff Court tomorrow – Thursday, 23 July, 2026.

HMRC: Say ‘I do’ to getting your side hustle tax right

  • Wedding season is here – and so is a reminder that income from side hustles may be taxable
  • Anyone earning more than £1,000 may need to register for Self Assessment and declare their income to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC)
  • A free online tool can help people earning extra money check if and when they need to report their additional income

The invitations are out, the venues are booked and the flowers are ordered – but for wedding suppliers who have turned their hobby into a side hustle, there is one more item on the to-do list: checking their tax obligations.

As wedding season gets underway, HMRC is reminding anyone earning extra income from activities like selling wedding stationery, filming the first dance or cake-making, that they will need to tell HMRC if they earn more than £1,000.

HMRC’s Help for Hustles campaign is here to help side hustlers get their tax right, quickly and easily – whether that’s wedding suppliers, parents earning from a hobby business or content creators making money from posting about the latest trends online.

Kevin Hubbard, HMRC’s Director of Small Business & Individuals, said: “For many people, a side hustle is a valuable source of extra income. If you’re earning more than £1,000 a year from your side hustle it’s important to understand your tax responsibilities, and HMRC wants to make that as straightforward as possible.

“You can check if you need to do a Self Assessment tax return by using the tool on GOV.UK. It takes minutes to use, tells you exactly what you need to do and means no unexpected tax bills later.”

If someone has earned more than £1,000 from their side hustle in a tax year, they may need to complete a Self Assessment tax return.

They can use the ‘Where is your additional income from?’ tool on GOV.UK. It takes a few minutes to complete and, if a tax return is required, it will explain how to register.

New entrants to Self Assessment should register for the 2025 to 2026 tax year by 5 October 2026.They must file their online tax return and pay any tax due by 31 January 2027.

The £1,000 threshold covers all side hustle income combined – so someone earning £600 from wedding photography and £500 from social media posts would need to register as their total exceeds £1,000.

Not all extra income is taxable. Selling unwanted personal belongings – such as clearing out a wardrobe – does not usually need to be reported to HMRC.

But regularly selling goods for profit, or providing a service for payment, is likely to count as trading and may need to be declared. Customers can check if they need to tell HMRC about additional income on GOV.UK.

CASE STUDY

“As soon as the wedding bookings started coming in, I knew I needed to look into my tax”

Lianna Dickson, 30, from Livingston, is currently on maternity leave from her role in influencer marketing and runs a successful wedding content creation business alongside family life as a new mum.

After getting married in 2024, Lianna realised she regretted not hiring a wedding content creator to capture behind-the-scenes moments from her own wedding day. With a background in social media and a long-held dream of running her own business, she saw the opportunity to combine both and launched Captured By Fifteen.

Lianna said: “I fell in love with all things weddings following my own and thought it was the perfect way to combine something I loved with the work experience I had.”

As a wedding content creator, Lianna captures authentic, behind-the-scenes moments as they naturally unfold on her phone, delivering raw footage and professionally edited highlight reels within 24 hours.

“Couples can wake up and relive their full wedding the very next morning in the most authentic way.”

Her business took off quickly and within her first year she had shot almost 50 weddings. As bookings and income grew, she knew she needed to look into her tax obligations.

“As soon as I started booking in a number of weddings I knew this was going to be a decent amount of extra money. I read a lot of information on GOV.UK and HMRC’s website.

“Once I realised my income was over the £1,000 trading allowance, I knew I’d need to complete a Self Assessment tax return.

“Everything online was super easy to understand.”

She found the process more straightforward than expected, keeping a detailed spreadsheet with tabs for invoices, outgoings, subscriptions and mileage to stay on top of her figures throughout the year.

“I had my tax return done within the hour. It was so much easier than I thought it would be.

I thought I would need to input every single transaction and that it would take hours, but it wasn’t the case at all – I had been keeping record of all the numbers, so it was really just a case of filling in information and copying the figures over.”

Her advice to anyone in a similar position is simple.

“Just keep track of everything and speak to someone who understands the process — or look up videos of someone explaining it if you struggle with just reading things.”

Lianna explains how her side hustle started on YouTube.

HMRC is encouraging anyone in a similar position – whether filming weddings, photographing events, baking celebration cakes or selling handmade goods – to use the Tax Help for Hustles guide or the free online HMRC tool to check whether they need to register.

Unfair dismissal changes among biggest Employment Rights Act 2025 challenges for bosses

New research by workplace expert Acas shows that changes to sick pay, paternity leave and unfair dismissal will pose the greatest challenges for businesses under new rules.

The YouGov survey, commissioned by Acas, asked employers which changes in the Employment Rights Act 2025 will be the hardest to adopt for their organisation.

Nearly 1 in 3 employers (30%) said that paying statutory sick pay from the first day of illness would be the hardest. More than one quarter (27%) said it would be the right to take paternity leave from the first day of employment.

New unfair dismissal protections, reducing the qualifying period from 2 years to 6 months, were also ranked among the top concerns (23%).

The valuable insights gained from the results will help Acas target its support for employers where they need it the most. Acas has already updated its advice on probation periods to reflect the new law changes on unfair dismissals.

Baroness Maggie Jones, Acas Chair, said: “The reforms in the Employment Rights Act are the biggest shake-up to employment law in a generation, and it is vital that employers get up to speed quickly.

“The new day one rights on sick pay and paternity are already in effect and new protections against unfair dismissals are set to come in next year.

“Acas has updated its advice on probations to reflect the new changes on unfair dismissals, which is a significant change in the law. Businesses that get on top of all the changes early can prevent costly disputes from happening.”

From 1 January 2027, protection from unfair dismissal will become a right after 6 months of being in a job. Currently, someone must have worked for their employer for 2 years before claiming unfair dismissal.

The limit on the amount of compensation for unfair dismissal will also be removed.

A probation period is a time at the start of employment to check if someone is suitable for a job.

There is no legal right to have a probation period, but some employers may be thinking about reducing the period to less than 6 months before the law changes on 1 January 2027. However, this does not avoid legal risks.

Employees still have protections during their probation such as:

  • discrimination
  • whistleblowing
  • breach of contract

Probation periods should also be tailored to the job. Probations of 6 months or less might not be appropriate for all roles. For example, technical or specialist roles might need longer for training and assessments.

Dismissing an employee during probation should be a last resort. Employers should consider other steps such as:

  • extending a probation period
  • using performance management to help someone improve

Find out more about: 

Sarwar set to shun Holyrood for seat in House of Lords

SLAP IN THE FACE FOR SCOTLAND’s PARLIAMENT

SCOTTISH Labour leader Anas Sarwar is set to turn his back on Holyrood and take a seat in the unelected House of Lords, according to reports last night.

Sarwar, who led Scottish Labour to a dreadful defeat in May’s Holyrood elections where the party won just 17 seats, has been tipped to become a junior business minister in Andy Burnham’s refreshed government.

There was pressure on Sarwar to step down following May’s humiliating results. but the list MSP (Sarwar didn’t win a first past the post seat but was elected through the PR top-up list system) vowed to fight on, claiming there was ‘unfinished business’.

Indeed, when asked if he would ever take up a seat in the House of Lords, Sarwar told The Herald: “No. I’m focused on being first minister of this great country.

“My only commitment, my only focus, is serving my constituents in Glasgow and serving the great people of this country, if I get the honour of being first minister.”

Last month he confirmed his determination to lead Scottish Labour for the full Holyrood term into the next elections: ‘I’m hungry for the fight ahead and I want to play my full part in making sure this country never ends up in the hands of Nigel Farage and Reform’

Just a few short weeks later, however, Sarwar appears to have had a change of mind.

The voters of Glasgow won’t even have an opportunity to have their say on Sarwar’s decision when he packs his bags and scurries down to Westminster’s unelected House of Lords – the very institution he said should be abolished!

There will be no by-election as Sarwar was elected as a list MSP, so he will simply be replaced by the next person on Glasgow’s Labour’s list.

Isn’t democracy wonderful!

Richard Shillcock, the Communist Party of Britain candidate for the Southside/Newington ward, has officially declared that tackling the city’s housing crisis through municipal house building will be a core priority of the Communist Party campaign for the upcoming City of Edinburgh Council by-elections on 3 September 2026.

Richard Shillcock emphasised that the current market-driven approach has failed local residents, arguing that a massive return to publicly owned housing is the only viable solution.

“Edinburgh has a housing crisis and there is only one answer to it—build council houses,” he said. “We need the Council to build, own, maintain, and administer council housing and not leave such an important issue to the free market.”

The Communist Party campaign outline focuses heavily on local job creation and public investment, linking a housing strategy directly to local economic development and skills training.

Shillcock added: “We need to employ council staff and invest in a new generation of apprentices to learn the skills required to build and maintain the highest quality council housing.

“Large-scale council house building was the best answer to the postwar housing crisis. It worked. Since then, turning homes into commodities in a market has failed us.”

Addressing potential concerns regarding budgets, Shillcock pointed to historical precedents and called for a major shift in public spending priorities away from military conflict and toward domestic infrastructure.

“If the money could be found in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s, it can be found now. “The Communist Party would spend on homes for people, not endless warfare,” Shillcock concluded.

The Southside/Newington and Craigmillar/Portobello by-elections will take place on Thursday, 3 September 2026.

Shillcock is standing alongside fellow Communist candidate Peter Olech, who is standing in the Portobello/Craigmillar ward, on a platform of peace, public ownership, tax justice and workers’ rights.

Museum coming to Macmillan Hub for breakfast visit

Our Summer Breakfast Club is having a special visit from National Museums Scotland! They’ll be popping by on Wednesday morning 22 July with a box of museum highlight objects for you to explore, touch, and get curious about!

BREAKFAST CLUB runs every morning, 10am–12pm, Monday–Saturday, until 8 August.

Pop by Macmillan Hub for free breakfast, hang out with your friends, and play games. We’ve got cereal, fruit, pastries, breakfast bars and refreshments waiting for you!

For local children and families living in Muirhouse, Pilton, Drylaw and Telford areas

Explore other free family friendly activities this summer: https://northedinburgharts.co.uk/summer-2026/

This year’s summer programme is delivered in partnership with Muirhouse Library.

College Launches Global Health Scholarships to Train Specialist Doctors in Low-Income Countries

The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (RCPE or “the College”) is pleased to announce the launch of its new Global Health Scholarships, a major initiative aimed at increasing the number of specialist physicians in low- and lower-middle income countries across sub-Saharan Africa.

Working in partnership initially with the Kenya Associations of Physicians and the Malawi College of Physicians, the scholarships will support postgraduate training in internal medicine through the East, Central and Southern Africa College of Physicians (ECSACOP). Beginning in the 2026/27 academic year, the programme will initially fund four trainee doctors, covering tuition and examination fees for the full four-year training programme.

This initiative responds to a critical shortage of doctors in the region which limits access to care, constrains training capacity for future healthcare professionals, and slows progress toward universal health coverage.

The ECSACOP programme, established in 2015 with support from international partners, provides high-quality, locally delivered specialist training aligned with international standards. By enabling doctors to train within their home countries, the programme strengthens national health systems and improves retention of skilled professionals.

The RCPE Global Health Scholarships aim to reduce financial barriers that prevent many qualified doctors from pursuing specialist training. Selection will be competitive, recognising clinical excellence, leadership potential, and a commitment to serving local health needs, particularly in underserved and rural communities.

While modest in scale, the initiative is expected to have a lasting impact by strengthening clinical leadership, enhancing training capacity, and improving access to specialist care across the region.

This programme aligns closely with RCPE’s strategic commitment to promote high standards in medical education globally and to develop meaningful partnerships with low- and middle-income countries.

Commenting Dr Conor Maguire, Vice-President (International) of the College, said: “We are delighted to be co-operating with colleagues in Kenya and Malawi to offer these Global Health scholarships.

“ This initiative reflects our commitment to global health equity and to working alongside partners in low- and middle-income countries to advance medical education, improve health outcomes and support the development of a sustainable specialist workforce.”

Professor Mark Strachan, President of the College said: “We very much hope that this initiative will help strengthen local health systems in Kenya and Malawi and allow doctors to train and remain in their home countries.

“This is a pilot that,  if successful, we hope to extend in future years.”

Associate Professor Ndaziona Peter Kwanjo Banda, President of Malawi College of Physicians said: “We are so excited and grateful for this financial support to our trainees from The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

“We are very happy to be among the first beneficiaries of these global health scholarships. This support will help in increasing the number of much needed qualified specialist physicians in a country and regional overburdened by both communicable and non-communicable diseases.

“Additionally, the qualified Specialist Physicians will become clinical educators and research mentors for future trainees under ECSACOP fellowship training program’’.

Witness appeal following serious road accident at Royal Infirmary

POLICE are appealing for information after two pedestrians were struck by a car at Little France.

The incident happened around 3.40pm on Monday, 20 July, 2026, outside the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh on Little France Crescent and involved a red Peugeot 208.

The two pedestrians, an 85-year-old woman and an 88-year-old man, remain in a critical condition.

No other injuries were reported.

Sergeant Paul Ewing said: “I am appealing to anyone who witnessed the incident and has yet to speak to officers to please come forward.

“I’d also ask those with dash-cam footage who may have been parked or driving into the area at the time to please review this to see if it has captured anything that could assist with our investigation.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact Police Scotland on 101, quoting incident number 2205 of 20 July, 2026.

Legal aid consultation

Building a fairer, more accessible legal aid system

Views are being sought on plans to reform the legal aid system, improving the service for the people who use it and the professionals who deliver it.

The Legal Aid Reform consultation sets out wide-ranging proposals to modernise the system, paving the way for a new Legal Aid (Scotland) Bill.

Legal aid provides publicly funded assistance to help people pursue or defend their civil legal rights or receive support with their legal defence when they could not otherwise afford to do so.

Proposals include simplifying processes, reducing duplication to support quicker decision making, improving access for those who use legal aid and providing greater autonomy for accredited solicitors.

Scotland’s legal aid system currently supports around 170,000 grants each year, with total expenditure reaching £169 million in 2024-25 – the highest ever annual spend on legal aid in Scotland.

The proposals build on a significant actions already under way, including a 13% increase in solicitor fees which will come into force in September, reforms to children’s and criminal legal aid which will be in place by the end of the year, a new £1.5 million Legal Aid Traineeship Fund supporting up to 40 trainees across Scotland and the establishment of the Independent Fee Review Mechanism Group, which is considering the longer-term changes needed to create a legal assistance system fit for the 21st century.

Minister for Victims and Community Safety Kirsten Oswald said: “At its heart, this is about building a legal aid system that works better for the people who rely on it and the professionals who deliver it.

“The proposed reforms build on work already underway and align with our wider programme of Public Service Reform, focusing on efficiency, value for money and improved outcomes through more streamlined and effective services.

“This consultation marks an important step in shaping the future of legal aid informed by the experience of those who rely on the system and the expertise of those who deliver it. I encourage all those with an interest to share their views.

“Together, we can build a legal aid system that is fairer, more accessible and fit for the future.”

The Reforming Legal Aid consultation will run until 13 October 2026