Volunteers in Scotland will have fewer forms to fill in as a result of new vetting and barring legislation currently going through the Scottish Parliament.

Plans for a pilot project to target drug misusing young male offenders and those with other underlying problems have been announced by the Scottish Executive.

As many as one in seven adults has turned to debt consolidation in the past three years to try to get their borrowing under control. Millions have taken out unsecured loans or remortgaged their homes in an attempt to put their debts in one place. In Scotland, the average loan taken out to cover previous debts was £14,439 – among the highest in the UK.

The Catholic Church in Scotland is threatening to take legal action to block new anti-discrimination laws it claims will force faith-based adoption agencies to close down.

Scotland’s prosecutors are considering taking strike action, a move which would bring the courts to a standstill. Procurators fiscal say they are furious the Crown Office has refused to make their pay gradings equal to that of Scottish Executive lawyers.

Prosecutors launched an appeal yesterday against a High Court judge’s decision to dismiss criminal charges against the owners of a care home where 14 elderly residents died in a fire.

Householders in Moray who have a spare room and a caring disposition are being urged to help teenagers start out on their new lives after they leave care.

Police are searching for a woman who has gone missing from a care home in Glasgow. Violet Willox, 59, who suffers from mental health problems, has been missing from the

Residents at an Aberdeenshire nursing home are being screened for tuberculosis after a member of staff fell ill, BBC Scotland can reveal.

Shocking details of how children are being trafficked into Scotland to act as domestic slaves are revealed in a report by Save the Children. The study highlights the case of an eight-year-old boy from Bangladesh forced into labour by a family in Scotland.