An inquiry into the affordability of food in light of global price rises is to take place, the Scottish Government has announced.
The move is one of a range of measures unveiled as Scotland moves towards its first national policy for food and drink.
Top chef Martin Wishart will lead a campaign to improve the quality and [...]

Alliance Boots has announced significant growth last year driven by strong health and beauty sales and cost cutting measures.
The UK pharmacy and beauty manufacturer reported revenues of ?15.304bn for the year ending March 31 2008, an increase of 4.8
per cent on last year’s results.
Trading profit for the company increased by 20.3 per cent to ?771m [...]

Students in public schools learn as much or more math between kindergarten and fifth grade as similar students in private schools, according to a new University of Illinois study of multi-year, longitudinal data on nearly 10,000 students.
The results of the study appear in the May issue of the education journal Phi Delta Kappan.
“These data provide [...]

Due to the persistently high percentage of government student loans in default, Education Minister Carl Bethel said the government is contemplating ‘get-tough’ measures to increase collection.
Due to the persistently high percentage of government student loans in default, Education Minister Carl Bethel said the government is contemplating ‘get-tough’ measures to increase collection.
As of June 30, 2007, [...]

A number of changes to business tax filing and accounting rules have been announced in a joint Budget statement from Finance Minister Michael Cullen and Revenue Minister Peter Dunne.
“Compliance costs will be reduced by raising a number of tax thresholds,” they say. “That may mean fewer tax returns for businesses to complete, a reduction in [...]

In an unprecedented move, the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, will make an appearance at tomorrow’s board meeting of the Association of British Insurers, where the trade body will press him on a range of issues including tax and regulation.
The ABI board, chaired by Archie Kane, who runs Scottish Widows, invited Mr Darling – the first time [...]

Everyone is jumping into the Green trend. Not everyone is doing it right though. Adopting ecologically friendly initiatives cannot be just a marketing plot. This is what is called “greenwashing” and consumers see right through it. A company needs to be sincere in its approach. It is a fundamental component of the authenticity consumers are [...]

Victorian businesses will save more than $1 billion in payroll tax, land tax and workers compensation premiums under the Victorian budget handed down by Treasurer John Lenders yesterday.
Payroll taxes, which had been scheduled to fall from 5.05% to 5%, have been slashed to 4.95%. The thresholds on land taxes have been increased by 10%, with [...]

Skelt was yesterday named as the Southland Hawke Cup head coach for the 2008-09 season, replacing Kevin Cooper, who will remain with the association as a professional junior coach and groundsman.
Skelt has a long history in coaching, which included him leading the Southland development rugby team to a national title in 2003.
That success resulted in [...]

The proposal comes in new laws being considered by the Australian government to protect the nations critical infrastructure from a cyber attack.
The proposed powers, which the government wants in place by the middle of next year and which could affect millions of workers, have been slammed as an unprecedented and unjustifiable intrusion on civil liberties.
The [...]