Here are the business stories making the headlines across Scotland and the UK this morning.

Ban new under-21 drivers from carrying similar-aged passengers, AA says

New, young drivers should be banned from carrying passengers of a similar age, the AA has said.

The restriction should be in place for six months after new drivers, aged under 21, pass their test, the motoring organisation said.

To aid enforcement, they propose a 'G' - graduate - plate should be displayed on the cars of young drivers.

These measures would be a form of graduated driving licensing (GDL) which is already used in several countries such as the US, Canada, Australia and Sweden.

British gas giant unveils plans for 60-mile ‘blue hydrogen’ pipeline

One of Britain’s biggest gas companies has unveiled plans for a 60-mile “blue hydrogen” pipeline in the north of England amid a row with environmentalists over the technology.

Cadent Gas, owned by a consortium led by investment bank Macquarie, said the “Hynet” underground pipeline will run from a hydrogen production plant near Ellesmere Port out into Cheshire to nearby factories and power plants.

It will be the first scheme of its kind in the UK and is billed by Cadent as “the first building block in a wider network of hydrogen pipelines across our regions”.

Read the full story here.

Fund manager Baillie Gifford issues 'return-to-office' edict

Baillie Gifford, the Edinburgh-based fund manager, has told staff to return to full-time office working, the latest in a string of employers to cool on pandemic era remote working practices.

Sky News understands that Baillie Gifford's
roughly-1,800 employees were notified in a video call several weeks ago that they were expected to attend its offices rather than working from home.

The move is said to have drawn a mixed response, with some staff unhappy at the edict.

Ministers to oversee HS2 build as costs 'spiral'

Ministers are to take a direct role in overseeing the building of the HS2 rail line to try to "get a grip" on the rising cost of the high speed route between London and Birmingham.

Transport Secretary Louise Haigh said
it had long been clear that the cost of HS2, which could reach £66bn, had been allowed to "spiral out of control".

She said she had now seen "up close" the "scale of failure", which she described as "dire".

TikTok owner sacks intern for sabotaging AI project

TikTok owner, ByteDance, says it has sacked an intern for "maliciously interfering" with the training of one of its artificial intelligence (AI) models.

But the firm rejected claims about the extent of the damage caused by the unnamed individual, saying they "contain some exaggerations and inaccuracies".

It comes after reports about the incident spread over the weekend on social media.

Click here to read the full story.

More like this…

View all