Shetland Islands Broadcasting Company

The Scottish Fishermen’s Organisation, Scotland’s largest fish producer organisation, has accused the Scottish government of mounting a direct attack on the country’s pelagic fleet by increasing the proportion of mackerel and herring that must be landed in Scottish ports next year from 55 per cent to 70 per cent.

In Shetland, over the last three winters, 44 crises grants were awarded, compared to 47 in Orkney.

Ariane Burgess, Scottish Green member of the Scottish parliament for the Highlands & Islands, has welcomed the local impact of a scheme aimed at helping homes become warmer, more comfortable and more affordable to heat.

New figures show that over 36,000 sailings of Calmac were cancelled since 2023 for technical and weather reasons. Since 2023 NorthLink has had cancellations, in addition to delays, but there has been only a few incidents of technical issues.

There was an NHS ferry patient transfer on Boxing Day. This was from Yell, with the ferry Daggri requested by the coastguard to make an extra run.

Since its launch in 2017, over 350,000 Baby Boxes, including almost 1,500 in Shetland have been delivered to give every newborn the best possible start in life.

It is said that about 3,000 jobs in Scotland have been saved after US firm CB&I completed a strategic acquisition of the holding company Petrofac Asset Solutions, which went into in administration last month. There is a widespread view that Petrofac never quite recovered from its losses of around £284 million from building the Shetland Gas Plant by the time it was completed in 2016.