Opinion

Martin Ewan discusses the oil price boom and the potential consequences for the north east of Scotland.

Stuart Clark, managing director at Russell & Russell Business Advisers, offers advice to employers who want to offer staff a helping hand with ever-increasing living costs. These are hard times all round. Particularly for the generations who have never experienced the inflationary chaos late las

Paul Reeves, managing director at restructuring advisory Kroll, discusses the intricacies of pre-pack administrations. Ever since the administration process became the key business rescue process over two decades ago, the pre-pack administration has suffered a tarnished reputation. Legislation has i

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