Scotland’s already overcrowded prisons are to be stretched even further with the announcement that one of the country’s jails will close in May.

Glasgow sheriffs have been accused of unnecessarily remanding young criminals in custody – costing council tax payers more than £1million a year.

Decades of initiatives have failed to wipe out poverty in some of Glasgow’s most deprived areas, a conference heard today. Strathclyde University’s Professor Michael Pacione said politicians must consider “new approaches” for the city’s poorest communities, or the problem would always remain.

The BMA has welcomed the publication of a new action plan to tackle alcohol problems in Scotland. Dr Peter Terry, chairman of the BMA in Scotland said: “We welcome the concerted efforts of the Scottish Executive to tackle Scotland’s drinking problem.

Men and women in Scotland are twice as likely to die an alcohol-related death as people in the UK as a whole, according to new research. The Office for National Statistics analysed the geographical variations in drink-related death rates in the UK between 1991 and 2004.

A new £28 million maternity unit at the Southern General Hospital was given the go-ahead by health bosses in Glasgow yesterday. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde unveiled the plans for the new unit yesterday and promised it would be operational by December 2009.

Plans for a new £874,000 care centre for people with physical disabilities have been unveiled in West Lothian. The council’s health and care committee has approved proposals to set up a care complex and supported housing development at Uphall.

New arrangements to publicise the identities of sex offenders who seek to evade the police, and clearer guidance for the police on entering sex offenders’ homes to prevent crimes are being proposed by the Executive today.

Fife Council has denied social work staff were under criminal investigation in the notorious Colyn Evans case. Last week, MSP Tricia Marwick rounded on the local authority over claims police had considered charging members of staff responsible for managing the former Kennoway teenager.

A new model for rehabilitation in Scotland was officially launched today. Key actions within the Delivery Framework for Adult Rehabilitation in Scotland include: