Jess Barrow, who helped produce Scotland’s vision for the country’s ageing population, has died. She was 43.

{mosimage}Ms Barrow was a leading figure with Age Concern Scotland for 10 years and was seconded to the Scottish Executive in 2005 to develop its strategy to prepare for the changing demographics of the country.

Yesterday, tributes were paid to Ms Barrow and the role she played in improving the lives of older people.

Malcolm Chisholm, who worked with Ms Barrow most recently as Communities Minister, said: “She was particularly committed to promoting the cause of older people in the broadest sense and she had quite a lot of success in doing so.

“She was absolutely central to the development of the Strategy for Scotland with an Ageing Population and she had such a positive view of older people.

“Although she had been a great campaigner for services, she always emphasised the enormous contribution older people could make to society. I valued her very highly in her role. She was a wonderful person who we will all miss.”

An out-of-hours health service that saw a GP prescribe painkillers to a patient who died in agony a few hours later has been criticised.

A disabled woman was yesterday celebrating a £2500 compensation payout after a tattoo parlour refused her entry, saying it did not “do people like that”.

Scotland’s £3.2bn voluntary sector is “on the wire” following a shortfall in funding from local authorities and a decrease in public donations.