A survivor of grooming gang abuse has accused the Scottish government of taking too long to deliver the public inquiry it promised at pace almost nine months ago. Holly Alex, 36, went into care at the age of 14 after her stepfather went to prison and her relationship with her mother broke down. Holly's social care records, seen by BBC Scotland News, show that staff recorded concerns that she was being groomed for sex by adult Asian men as a teenager. They also indicate social workers and police knew of the risks she faced. Education Secretary Màiri McAllan said safeguarding children was the government's priority, and the planned statutory inquiry was a core part of this work.

Scotland is on course to miss legally-binding targets to cut child poverty by a wide margin, according to a report from a leading social reform charity. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) said one in five children was in poverty and radical change was needed to put the Scottish government's pledges back on track. It urged ministers to craft a much bolder and properly-funded plan to reduce poverty by rewiring local government, public services and the tax system. The Scottish government said it had made great strides, with its policies keeping 100,000 children out of poverty this year, but accepted there was more to do. In 2017, MSPs passed a law requiring ministers to hit four targets, external, including pushing the share of children in relative poverty below 10% by 2030.

Wed 16 Sep 2026 07.55 EDTLast modified on Wed 16 Sep 2026 07.56 EDT Large-scale datacentres will face mandatory environmental assessments before they can go ahead, the Scottish government has announced, amid growing public concern about the impact of the AI boom. Ahead of a vote on a moratorium on new hyperscale datacentres in Holyrood on Wednesday, the Scottish government has tightened rules for new projects by requiring any above 50MW to submit environmental impact assessments, but stopped short of agreeing to an outright halt. Scotland has seen a boom in planning applications for large datacentres as global investment in AI infrastructure has exploded. Datacentres are critical for storing and processing data used by AI. One scheme in Auchtertool, Fife, has been billed as the second-largest in the world, and is among more than 20 large datacentres proposed so far.

Scotland could freeze datacentre projects in challenge to UK's AI strategy The Scottish government is about to consider a sweeping moratorium on building new datacentres, putting a key plank of the UK's AI strategy at risk. Last Sunday the Scottish National party (SNP)'s national council passed a motion to freeze all new datacentres in Scotland. That motion has been sent to the Scottish government to consider. It could apply to all datacentre projects that have not yet received planning permission - although its exact implementation is up to the Scottish government to decide. Lesley Backhouse, who attended the national council meeting, said that Scotland's current datacentre plans amounted to "overdevelopment" and were "intrusive and not keeping with the local environment".

MP wants Elon Musk's chatbot shut down over claim he enabled grooming gangs An MP has called for Elon Musk's artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot to be shut down after it called him a rape enabler. The Grok chatbot made the post on X about SNP MP Pete Wishart, after a user asked it to comment on the member's opinion on whether there should be an inquiry into grooming gangs in Scotland. Mr Wishart said he was seeking legal advice over the deeply distressing accusation and called for Musk to recalibrate the bot to shut it down. The BBC has approached XAI, the parent company of X, for comment. I was genuinely shocked to be described in such an appalling and defamatory way, Mr Wishart said in a statement.

An AI tool has been used to review public responses to a government consultation for the first time and is now set to be rolled out more widely in an effort to save money and staff time. The tool, named "Consult", was first used by the Scottish government when it was seeking perspectives on the regulation of non-surgical cosmetic procedures such as lip filler. The UK government said the tool analysed responses and was able to produce results identical to human officials, and will now be used to review responses from other consultations, while also being developed further. While reviewing more than 2,000 responses, Consult identified key themes, which were then checked and refined by experts in the Scottish government. The government built Consult to be among its new package of AI tools, nicknamed "Humphrey", which they claim will "speed up work in Whitehall and cut back on consulting spending".

There is a realistic chance that one of the UK's largest oil refineries can be converted into a hub for green chemicals, sustainable fuels and plastics, Scotland's first minister says. Grangemouth oil refinery, which is being shut down by its UK and Chinese owners PetroIneos this year with the loss of 400 jobs, could become a world leader in low carbon chemicals and green fuels, John Swinney told media on Wednesday. The refinery's closure, after 100 years of production, is expected to hit up to 2,000 jobs in the east of Scotland. Trade union leaders and policymakers see Grangemouth as a casestudy in ensuring the transition from oil and gas is fair and just. Swinney said workers and local businesses faced "enormous difficulties".

While Artificial intelligence (AI) has been developing for decades, recent years have seen increasing attention to its various societal impacts. These impacts range from positive and helpful to harmful and even life-threatening in some cases. Parliaments have responded to such developments by undertaking various programmes of work. What have they done, and what can Scotland learn from these approaches? This short review provides a snapshot of the work that various Parliaments around the world have undertaken on AI. It outlines the various approaches adopted by Parliaments and highlights common themes. In noting the key points for Scotland, it is designed to inform and guide the Scottish Parliament and others, as Scotland considers its own approach to the many opportunities and challenges AI presents. The report was written by Robbie Scarff on an internship supported by the Scottish Graduate School of Social Science. From this work, here are some key areas and questions for the Scottish Parliament to consider.

The former Google X executive Mo Gawdat is beginning the rounds on his new book Scary Smart, which renders artificial intelligence to be as much a force of nature as Covid. Indeed, he sees AI as nothing less than the next evolutionary step on this planet. For Gawdat, it's clear: the capacity for learning from data and experience in these machines is on an exponential curve (which doesn't just gently ascend but shoots eventually into the sky). At some singular point – probably aided by the unimaginable calculating power of quantum computing, and apparently by the end of the decade – we will be in the presence of massively superior beings. READ MORE: Even Google's algorithm understands this one key fact about the Union Gawdat wants us – indeed, warns us – to think of them as "our children", with a voracious appetite for learning from their environment.

The coronavirus pandemic lockdown has highlighted a series of new social changes, but with it, a whole new set of software and hardware technologies have become our coping mechanisms. During the onset of the lockdown in March this year, businesses across a broad range of industries were forced to adapt rapidly in order to survive. Across the country, millions of staff began working from home and shoppers were unable to visit the high street. However, despite the disruption and challenges of Covid-19, a host of sectors are thriving. In this article, we will look at some of the major sectors that have benefitted from the'stay at home' culture and explore how the digital transformation of our daily lives has allowed us to cope with lockdown measures.