Opinion

Tom Stocker, partner and sanctions expert at Pinsent Masons, discusses the implications for businesses that comply with sanctions on Russian trade. Despite successive rounds of UK, EU and US sanctions ratcheting up the pressure on Putin’s government and a further round of sanctions being immin

Betsy Williamson, founder of Core-Asset Consulting, shares her views on the recent Queen's Speech - in which the long-promised Employment Bill was absent. The recent Queen’s Speech, historic in its own right with the absence of Her Majesty at the State Opening of Parliament for the first time

Kevin Hollister, founder of Glasgow-based pensions calculator Guiide, discusses how to close the ever expanding pensions advice gap. There is so much talk about the advice gap around pensions but to date, there has been little action to bridge it. What can actually be done to help close the gap?

Angus Wood, partner at BTO, discusses the details surrounding the assignation of claims in an insolvency case. The recent Court of Appeal decision in Lock v Stanley has provided some comfort to Insolvency Practitioners and litigation funders in relation to potential challenges to assignations of cla

Last week, Scottish Financial News reported that Big Four firm PwC is offering shorter working hours on a Friday over the summer. Chris Phillips, employment law partner at Thorntons Solicitors comments. The idea of shortening or flexing hours for staff over the summer is great in principle and, as l

Thomas Gillan, chief financial officer of payment orchestration platform BR-DGE, recently returned from Startup Grind, a two-day conference in Silicon Valley, as part of a delegation of 20 Scottish entrepreneurs. He reflects on discussions with industry leaders and resulting insights that every Scot

Michael Reid, managing partner at Aberdeen-based chartered accountancy practice Meston Reid & Co, discusses the utilisation of bounce-back-loans for unintended purposes. Much has been reported in the media over the past few months about a company obtaining a bounce-back loan and the directors no

Stuart Clark, managing director at Russell & Russell Business Advisers, discusses consolidation in the accountancy industry and where smaller firms fit and can grow. The pitiless logic of business dictates that big is better, that scalability is the ultimate goal and that survival depends on rel

Hamish Lean, part­ner at law firm Shep­herd and Wed­der­burn, discusses how farmers in Scotland have been outbid by the forestry industry, as the value of hill land rises. Is productive agricultural land being lost to forestry in the race to meet net-zero? There has been concern with

Angelique Bret, partner and specialist in consumer law at Pinsent Masons, discusses the implications for businesses who break UK consumer protection law. Businesses that breach UK consumer protection laws will be subject to fines of up to 10 per cent of their annual global turnover under proposed ch

Angela Paterson, insolvency practitioner, at Dunedin Advisory, discusses the role of an Insolvency Practitioner. An IP is an individual who is licenced by a regulatory body to accept formal insolvency appointments and offer debt and restructuring advice. IPs work with both businesses and individuals

Ryan Macready, senior solicitor at Macdonald Henderson, discusses the intricacies of buying and selling accountancy practices. The majority of Scottish accountancy firms are owner-managed independent general practices, with a local client base. When approaching retirement age, these owner-managers w

Brian Machray, Reward Finance Group’s business development director for Scotland, explains why Scottish SMEs are being refused finance by traditional funders. SMEs accounted for 99.3% of Scotland’s private sector in December 2021, according to a recent Scottish Government white paper. Th

Andrew Hill, lease advisory partner at Knight Frank Edinburgh, discusses rents within Scotland's commercial property market. The pandemic has been with us for two full financial years – it, therefore, feels like an apt time to look back on how that has affected the rents occupiers can expect t

Richard Hepburn, managing director of Millar & Bryce, discusses the property trends of 2022. 2021 was a challenging year for the Scottish property industry, so most of us were cautious in our hopes for 2022. After all, we started the year with Covid-19 regulations still firmly in place in Scotla