National News

The Scottish Social Justice Secretary was updating Holyrood on winter payments being delivered by the Scottish Government.

Politicians at Holyrood will see their annual salary increase by 3.2% from April.

Some 17 deaths have been looked at by Cheshire Constabulary but two remain under investigation.

Here the PA news agency looks at who the festive success stories are so far, and which retailers have appeared more downbeat.

Scarlett Vickers died after an incident in the kitchen of a house in Darlington in July last year.

He was beaten by vice-president Steve Wright.

He is due to appear in court at a later date.

The rate of Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation is expected to have come in at 2.6% last month, unchanged from November.

The Chancellor was also criticised for her visit to China, with SNP MP Dave Doogan saying it was ‘beyond parody’.

British-Egyptian dual national Alaa Abd El-Fattah has been detained since 2019 and his mother has spent more than 100 days on hunger strike.

The Princess of Wales visited the Royal Marsden Hospital in London on Tuesday to thank medical teams and offer support to fellow patients.

Wayne Sefton Davis told one of his victims that he ‘needed to teach her how to pleasure her husband’ and wanted to check that another was ‘a virgin’.

A watchdog has said deliveries of drugs and weapons to prison by drone are a national security threat.

Cara Hunter said she was targeted just weeks before the 2022 Assembly election.

The Australia women’s national football team captain appeared at Kingston Crown Court on Tuesday.

Neil Gray said the success of the Thistle Centre would be measured if there are fewer drug deaths and ‘harm reduction’.

Christopher Rogers will appear in court next month.

The UK wants to cede sovereignty of the territory to Mauritius but lease back the strategically important UK-US military base on Diego Garcia.

Neil Gray spoke out after new figures showed a 7% rise over a year in the number of days spent in hospital by patients who are well enough to leave.

He is most famous for his appearances on Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Just A Minute and Have I Got News For You.