Everyone’s medical history and records should be confidential and secure in the hands of the NHS. But there have been serious privacy breaches resulting in dozens of staff being disciplined and police investigations.
Tensions are high in Glasgow following a series of protests over alleged sex crimes by migrants. Police and anti-racism groups fear extremists could inflame the situation.
Academics investigated the representation of women of colour in media coverage of the Scottish Parliament election. They said their findings were "incredibly disappointing" given the current hostility towards migrants.
For the past year, The Ferret has been working on a major project investigating finance called The Money Trail, and the next part of our series will be published on Sunday with more to come that week.
From dark money, to Scottish Limited Partnerships, to the controversial ownership of land and property, Scotland plays host to a range of illicit finance risks.
So, scrutiny is vital to ensure that money does not flow to Scotland’s politics without careful monitoring, and that individuals, companies and states from around the world cannot store their wealth and dirty money in Scottish land, property and companies without it being a matter of public record.
Lifting the lid on illicit finance issues requires rigorous investigative journalism, and despite legal threats we’ve published more than a dozen investigations to date.
As part of our investigation series, we vetted hundreds of offshore-owned properties with foreign owners, unmasking landowners including a Cairngorms businessman linked to an £800m money laundering and fraud scam, and a Canadian government body with an alleged history of tax avoidance.
Using leaked Paradise Papers files, made available to The Ferret by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, we revealed that the top political donor to two political parties, senior bankers, a House of Lords peer, and football legend, Ally McCoist, were among secret owners of a tax haven firm behind an elite Scottish golf club.
The story prompted renewed calls from campaigners for the UK Government to force overseas British territories to provide public registers revealing the beneficial owners of firms registered there.
We also unveiled the offshore firms, politicians, and billionaires who received hefty taxpayer forestry handouts. They included the King, J.K. Rowling, and some who have broken rules around public subsidies. The top recipient was a Guernsey resident whose spouse admitted leaving the UK for the Channel Isles to avoid tax.
Ahead of the 2024 UK General Election, we analysed thousands of donation records spanning three years, revealing the funders linked to dark money, tax havens, climate change denial, and the blacklisting of trade unionists.
Post-election, we vetted the business and financial interests of all new MPs, revealing the prevalence of landlords, and highlighting the hypocritical investments of politicians. And for good measure, we scrutinised Scottish members of the House of Lords to find out how much they cost the taxpayer, the amount they’ve claimed in expenses, and how active each member has been.
Our next two reports will focus on Scottish Limited Partnerships (SLPs) – legal entities that have proven controversial over the past decade. They are used by thousands of legitimate businesses – but some have been used by money launderers, tax evaders and fraudsters, prompting calls for reform to laws to crackdown on criminality.
Our latest investigation into SLP’s took us to the west end of Glasgow, and Muirhouse, Edinburgh – a housing estate in Scotland’s capital made famous by author and former resident, Irvine Welsh, who immortalised the area in his 1993 novel, Trainspotting.
So, if you want to find out what links working class Muirhouse to the Seychelles and Swiss bank accounts, look out for our special investigation on Sunday.
This work has been made possible by funding from the Joffe Trust. But we want to do more of it so please become a member of The Ferret today and support independent, investigative journalism in the public interest.
Yours,
Billy Briggs and Jamie Mann
Tensions are high in Glasgow following a series of protests over alleged sex crimes by migrants. Police and anti-racism groups fear extremists could inflame the situation.
The Scottish Government changed key parts of the official record of Angus Robertson’s controversial Israel meeting after a backlash, raising questions about government secrecy.
Concerns have been raised after a Reform UK campaigner claimed he knew in advance that migrants in Belfast would be targeted following the heinous attack on Stephen Ogilvie. Reform UK said it has “repeatedly and unequivocally condemned violence, intimidation and criminal damage”.
Offshore companies which own Scottish land are breaking the law by failing to reveal who they really represent. Authorities aren't bothering to check.
