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

Income tax take soars to £264b under Tories

Income tax revenues have leapt by more than 70% since 2010 to £264billion, illustrating the sharp rise in the tax burden overseen by successive Conservative administrations since the party came to power more than a decade ago.

Analysis of figures from HM Revenue & Customs by The Times revealed that Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt have been raising income tax receipts without actually lifting headline rates.

At the March 2021 budget, when he was chancellor, Sunak froze a handful of tax bands for several years, which has moved workers up the tax system amid a period of record wage growth. Since that policy was enacted, and then extended by Jeremy Hunt, income tax receipts have jumped by £49billion, or just under a quarter.

Since 2010, when the Tories ousted Labour to enter No 10 via a coalition with the Liberal Democrats, income tax receipts have jumped by £113billion, or 76%.

Ministers vow to speed up justice for Post Office victims

Plans to fast-track appeals of hundreds of sub-postmasters affected by the Post Office IT scandal will be announced "very shortly", a minister said.

Post Office minister Kevin Hollinrake told MPs it was investigating ways to overturn convictions, which could include possible legislation.

More than 700 people got criminal convictions because of faulty software but only 93 have had them overturned.

He indicated more information should be given by the end of the week.

Mr Hollinrake also suggested that Fujitsu - the technology company behind the software that caused the scandal - and anyone else found to be responsible should be "held accountable including making any payments" towards victims' compensation.

On Monday, Mr Hollinrake met Justice Secretary Alex Chalk to discuss what he called "one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our history".

Samsung warns of worse than expected profits fall

Technology giant Samsung Electronics says it is likely to see its profits for the last three months of 2023 fall by more than a third.

The decline is much worse than analysts expected and comes as global demand for consumer electronics remains weak.

South Korea-based Samsung is the world's largest maker of memory chips, smartphones and televisions.

The company is scheduled to release a detailed financial earnings report on 31 January.

Samsung estimated that its operating profit fell to 2.8 trillion won ($2.13bn; £1.76bn) in the October-December quarter, 35% lower compared to the same period in 2022.

It is much less than the roughly 3.7 trillion won expected by technology industry analysts.

Channel 4 tells staff a round of major job cuts is looming

Channel 4’s chief executive has confirmed to its 1,200 staff that a round of major job cuts is looming, as the broadcaster seeks to hasten its shift to streaming amid the worst TV advertising downturn in 15 years.

Alex Mahon told the workforce in an internal email on Monday morning that the broadcaster needed to “accelerate” plans to become a “genuinely digital-first public service broadcaster” after the worst slump in traditional TV advertising since the financial crisis in 2008.

“Given all the market change and complexity that we need to adapt to, there will be an impact on jobs at Channel 4,” wrote Mahon, the day after the Guardian revealed the broadcaster was planning its biggest job cuts in more than 15 years.

“What we are doing now is accelerating our existing plans to weather the sharp and protracted advertising slowdown that has hit the whole industry. We have been working carefully to minimise the impact on individuals.”

Mahon has referred to the advertising slump in 2023 as a “market shock”, while the ITV chief executive, Carolyn McCall, has said the free-to-air broadcasting industry is facing the steepest downturn since 2008.

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