About 50 detainees at a immigration removal detention centre in South Lanarkshire are refusing food, the Home Office has confirmed. Earlier, a detainee at the Dungavel detention centre told BBC Scotland that 100 people were involved.

A full range of measures – including satellite tracking and lie detectors – could be brought to bear on sex offenders who go into hiding, Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said yesterday.

Alex Salmond picked his first major fight with Westminster last night over a British government deal which he feared could involve the transfer of the Lockerbie bomber to Libya.

Police have uncovered a cannabis farm inside a three-bedroom detached house in an upmarket part of a quiet suburban village.

The Scottish government is to outline its plans for managing sex offenders. The SNP administration has already begun work on proposals to release the names and pictures of offenders who

Scottish Refugee Council (SRC) has called for the replacement of the current system of deporting failed asylum seekers with the Swedish model which is based on information, support and voluntary repatriation.

Following the statement made by Nicola Sturgeon, Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing, in which she set out the Government’s position on future NHS service change proposals, Dr Peter Terry, Chairman of BMA Scotland, said:

Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon has announced to parliament that decisions to close two accident and emergency units will be reversed. The previous government had endorsed plans to close A&E units at Ayr hospital and Monklands in Lanarkshire.

Patients in Ayrshire are to be offered tests for hepatitis C amid concern that they may have been infected by a health care worker more than 15 years ago. Some people who underwent surgery, such as caesareans or hysterectomies, were offered tests in 2005 but none were found to be infected.

Children and young people have produced a DVD highlighting the “horrors” of their detention at the Dungavel immigration removal centre which they hope will lead to the end of the