Telegraph View: Ofsted should never have been asked to oversee child protection - it has enough trouble trying to raise standards in our schools.

There has been an impressive investment in education over the past 12 years but it is clear that there has not been a commensurate improvement in the overall quality of provision.

BRITISH officials secretly discussed the prospects for "regime change" in Iraq in late 2001 - more than a year before the invasion - the inquiry into the war has been

THE cost of providing free care for the elderly in Scotland increased by 11 per cent last year, according to new Scottish Government figures.

THE Scottish Government was facing renewed calls last night to drop its £9 million referendum bill after a poll revealed that support for independence has fallen to its lowest

POLITICAL weather conditions look to have turned decidedly wintry for Alex Salmond and the SNP. After the downpour of Labour votes that drowned his party in the Glasgow North

THE number of repeat victims of domestic abuse in Scotland soared by almost 40 per cent last year, amid a general rise in domestic violence, official statistics reveal.

SOLDIERS, philosophers and inventors are among those who may be immortalised at the Scottish Parliament under plans announced yesterday to name the building's commi

THE Scottish Government is to examine the results of a survey launched yesterday to gauge public opinion on the safety of unmanned rail crossings.

A TORY ex-minister yesterday branded the government "arrogant and irresponsible" for refusing to legalise the sale of "smokeless" tobacco.

NEW measures to restrict migrant workers' access to British jobs will come into force next month.

THE widow of a bomb disposal expert killed in Afghanistan the day before he was due to return home made an emotional plea for peace at his funeral yesterday.

PARENTS will have no choice but to give their children the MMR jab after the world's only single mumps vaccine manufacturer stopped production, it was revealed yesterday.

MORE than one in three new mothers are left alone and worried during labour or shortly after giving birth, a poll found yesterday.

MOTORISTS are being used as "cash cows" with parking fines seen as a lucrative source of income for local councils, despite penalties falling, campaigners have claime

AMERICA'S delay in deciding whether to send more troops to Afghanistan has contributed to falling public support in the UK for the mission, Defence Secretary Bob Ainswort

THE brother of a man murdered by former royal aide Jane Andrews - now on the run from prison - has called on Justice Secretary Jack Straw to resign.

MORE than six and a half years after Tony Blair defied opposition at home and abroad to invade Iraq, feelings are still raw among those who campaigned against the war or lost