The prime minister is poised to unveil plans which could mean extra funding for Scotland, BBC Scotland understands.

The bus contractors such as Arriva and Stagecoach? The private schools? The private health insurance companies? Or the institutions that the sort of middle-class Scots who wind up at Holyrood rather than Westminster hold in the same awe as they held the unquestionable Bank of Scotland and Royal Bank of Scotland: the Church of Scotland, the Scottish educational system, the Scottish legal system? Al...

HUGE state-run banks like Royal Bank of Scotland may have to be broken up before being sold back to the private sector, the Tories said yesterday.

It was former environment minister Michael Russell who had championed the idea, but it was left to his successor to take an axe to controversial plans to lease up to a quarter of Scotland's publicly-owned forests to private companies.

The British Medical Association has attacked plans which could give researchers and private companies access to NHS medical records without patients' consent.

Ambitious plans for private sector investment have been welcomed by business groups, but some are sceptical over whether proposed projects will arrive in time to maintain jobs in the struggling construction sector

CLAIMS that social mobility will be improved if disadvantaged children have better access to private education have been supported in Scotland.

The NHS in Wales gives the go ahead to use private hospitals to help cut orthopaedic waiting times.

AMBITIOUS plans to create a zero-waste society in Scotland have been unveiled.

GLASGOW Council is looking at plans to hand over the running of its parks, litter collection and street cleaning to a private firm.