£50.9m the following year and £74.7m in the final year. Mr Matheson said: “This is a complete climbdown from Edinburgh ministers who were determined to go ahead with a cut that would have devastated our communities and undone decades of regeneration. “I...

Around 80,000 e-mails from across the country – including more than 4,000 from learners and supporters at the Paisley college – were sent to the government as a protest against the plans gathered pace. Now campaigners are celebrating after Finance...

Outlining the recommendations of a report on college governance earlier this month, Mr Russell said further education colleges would be reordered under 12 regional boards, making them “more efficient” and “responsive to the needs of local students and...

NEW software development company which will create 500 jobs in the Capital has been opened by Finance Secretary John Swinney. Swiss company Avaloq Innovation chose Edinburgh as the site for its new development centre because of the large number of...

This is a truly fine place to be and I am thrilled that it has happened.” Scottish Development International and Scottish Enterprise have been working with Avaloq since November 2010. The project is being assisted with a Training Plus Grant of £1.74m. ...

The company, who create software for banks, will employ 400 software engineers during the first four years, growing to around 500 in four to seven years. They plan to recruit 75 graduate trainees in the first year. Finance Secretary John Swinney opened...

The company, which creates software for banks, will employ 400 software engineers during the first four years, growing to around 500 in four to seven years. It plans to recruit 75 graduate trainees in the first year. Finance Secretary John Swinney...

“I will continue to demand that investment and job opportunities are brought to Renfrewshire and will fight for all our local unemployed people who are desperately seeking work.” Finance Secretary John Swinney said that “further sustained action” is...

“They must also recognise that for far too long the Scottish economy has simply failed to generate sufficient numbers of full-time jobs. “The creation of sustainable quality full-time employment must now become the central goal of their economic...

In November, John Swinney proclaimed Scotland's lower unemployment, higher employment and lower economic inactivity rates compared to the rest of the UK, claiming credit for making the difference in Scotland with a Plan MacB strategy emphasising...

There were 102,000 16 to 24-year-olds out of work over the period October to December 2011, including 85,000 18 to 24-year-olds. However, the employment rate for young people was higher north of the Border than for the UK as a whole. Finance Secretary...

59.4 per cent compared to 56.5 percent for the UK as a whole and for 16 to 24-year-old's it was 52.9 percent in Scotland compared to 50.2 per cent for the UK. The overall employment rate is also slightly higher in Scotland, at 70.7 per cent compared to...

Finance Secretary John Swinney yesterday cut the first turf at the site of the new Inverness College – hailed as Highlands’ most significant development for young people in years. The MSP marked the beginning of infrastructure works at the site of the...

North Korean terms. Until the SNP publish a definition of what it means by independence, people are quite entitled to assume it corresponds to their own idea of it. Some might see an independent Scotland which has to submit annual Scottish budgets to...

He used a speech to the Economic Development Association (Scotland), to claim that running a successful NHS and criminal justice system would benefit the economy. Mr Swinney said the government was working to secure investment in the NHS by working...

Bank of Scotland economists said it grew slightly faster in January compared to the previous month. But the employment rate was weaker than the UK as a whole, according to the bank's purchasing managers' index. Scottish Finance Secretary John Swinney...

On his part, his mistake was to invoke the Third Reich. The Nationalists might deny it, but words like that matter. In last week’s Scotsman, former John Swinney aide Ewan Crawford argued passionately against the use of the term separatism as a synonym...

In sketching out the debate that ensued at Holyrood, the BBC’s Scottish Political Editor, Brian Taylor wrote on his blog on Wednesday: “An intriguing set of responses from opposition parties in the Holyrood chamber this afternoon to John Swinney’s...

Scottish government's budget of £30 billion has been approved by MSPs in a Holyrood vote, with 70 members in support and 52 opposed. Ahead of this approval, Scotland's Finance Secretary John Swinney confirmed that an additional £382 million would be...