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Scottish Government

Devolved administration governing Scotland, overseeing policy areas such as health, education, environment, agriculture and planning.

Known aliases

  • Scottish government
  • Scottish ministers

Current stories

leadershipConfirmed2 publishers

Glasgow offers three years of pay protection to win a vote on its equal-pay regrading

Glasgow City Council dropped a fire-and-rehire threat to 23,000 staff by agreeing three years of pay protection with its unions. The equal-pay regrading still needs union members' votes, and for staff who lose under the new grades the deal delays the cut until the protection ends.

Reality

Evidence70
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+15
Incentives55
Confidence65
scienceOne report1 publisher

Scotland's planners face AI data centres up to 83 times the size of its largest existing site

Scotland has plans for at least 23 hyperscale AI data centres, the largest a 1,000MW site at Chapelcross in Dumfries and Galloway. The government has refused a moratorium, so the fight over their power, water and noise is happening one planning case at a time.

Publishers:bbc.co.uk

Reality

Evidence45
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+15
Incentives40
Confidence50
scienceOne report1 publisher

Airborne lasers count 2.65 million trees under five metres across the Cairngorms

A Cambridge-led team mapped every stem across 569 square kilometres of the Cairngorms and found 2.65 million under five metres, a baseline precise enough to audit restoration targets against even though one flight cannot date the trees.

Publishers:phys.org

Reality

Evidence60
Adoption38
Hype gap+22
Incentives60
Confidence58
scienceOne report1 publisher

Researchers urge the UK to itemise the disposable cup charge on every receipt

Ninety-two percent of cafe customers surveyed could not tell whether a cup was already costing them money, and the behavioural case for a mandated charge rests on a field experiment in three university cafes.

Publishers:phys.org

Reality

Evidence42
Adoption20
Hype gap+30
Incentives65
Confidence50
productOne report1 publisher

Scottish MSPs hold 50MW-plus data centre decisions until national guidance is published

Parliament approved text saying no decisions should be taken on data centre schemes over 50MW until national guidance is complete, while the planning minister told the same debate that a moratorium is neither necessary nor appropriate.

Reality

Evidence62
Adoption33
Hype gap+27
Incentives68
Confidence55
scienceOne report1 publisher

Shifting UK mowing and grazing dates by two to three weeks would cover far more wader nests

Nesting records from across the UK show that scheme exclusion dates, set one per country, miss when lapwing and oystercatcher are actually on eggs, and an Aberdeen-led team puts the fix at two or three weeks.

Publishers:phys.org

Reality

Evidence62
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+18
Incentives45
Confidence58