INMATES in Scotland’s biggest prison should be let out to work on major construction projects including new facilities for the 2014 Commonwealth Games, the justice secretary said yesterday.

Parents will have access to year-round nursery provision “within buggy walking distance from their homes” in what has been described as the UK’s most comprehensive and flexible childcare service.

THE head of the Scottish Prisons Commission yesterday called for a national debate on the place of alcohol in society, describing the level of drink-related crime as “shocking”.

An increase in the ageing population might be one of the biggest challenges to the delivery of health care in the Highlands, bigger perhaps than smoking, alcohol abuse and obesity.

The chief inspector of Scotland’s social work departments has warned them that they still have much to do if they want to prove their worth.

A SOCIAL worker has been suspended after she was caught in a “steamy embrace” with a prisoner.

Scottish schoolgirls are to become the first in the UK to be vaccinated against cervical cancer. Schools in the Lanarkshire, Tayside, Grampian and Western Isles NHS areas are to begin vaccinating 12 and 13-year-old girls from this week.

A CARE home where a pensioner died after falling from her wheelchair is to close just weeks after being criticised by a sheriff.

The Edinburgh Crisis Centre will celebrate the official opening of its new, permanent location at 4 Smiths Place in Leith today.

Social factors – rather than genetics – are to blame for huge variations in ill health and life expectancy around the world, a report concludes.