Cases of meningitis and deadly blood poisoning in Scotland are up 40 per cent, with six deaths already reported this year.

The part of the Register for practitioners in day care of children services opened in March and workers can now start registering with the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC). The part of the register for managers and lead practitioners in day care of children services opened in October 2006.

An influential group of ministers in Scotland’s largest Protestant church has said that its clergy and congregations have been “sinfully” intolerant of gays and lesbians in its ranks.

A major search-and-rescue operation was called off last night after police hunting for a missing Royal Navy doctor discovered a body. Dr David Hughes, 37, was said to be depressed and had been recently told he was to be deployed on a second tour of duty to Iraq next January.

THE NHS in Scotland must learn from the oil and nuclear industries to cut the tens of thousands of mistakes made each year when caring for patients, experts said yesterday.

The number of murders in Scotland has jumped by nearly a third in the past year, with an even bigger rise in fatal stabbings, according to new figures which deal a serious blow to the Scottish Executive’s record on violent crime.

Management at a care home where one resident allegedly sexually assaulted another have been branded “neglectful”. Managers and staff at Camphill Blair Drummond, a Stirlingshire home for disabled young adults, took three days to phone the police after the incident in June last year.

Four people have appeared in custody at Paisley Sheriff Court charged with arranging sham marriages to avoid immigration laws. Derek Burns, 27, of Glendower Way, and Maureen Campbell, 26, of Morar Drive, Foxbar, both Paisley, were charged with offering to arrange marriages.

The latest research from Capability Scotland’s 1 in 4 Poll on voting intentions suggests that over 90% of disabled Scots and their carers are set to vote in the Scottish elections on May 3rd 2007 – bucking the predicted low turnout for the electorate as a whole. 

Social care charity Quarriers is to call on the next Scottish Executive to do more to back community-based work with children and to encourage integrated working.