Responding to reports that the business empire of Sanjeev Gupta is under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office over suspected fraudulent trading and money laundering, Scottish Liberal Democrat Leader Willie Rennie commented:

"The Scottish Government's exposure at the Lochaber smelter runs to hundreds of millions of pounds.

Scottish Liberal Democrats have today lodged a request for a parliamentary statement amid mounting concern and evidence about the stress and damage being caused by the flood of assessments replacing exams.

In a letter to John Swinney, Beatrice Wishart has told of a pupil who has the equivalent of an assessment a day for 8 weeks straight and warned of the toll the demands are taking on young people and staff.

Here's a rundown of the key Bills being proposed by the Government in the Queen's Speech

Sovereign Borders Bill

The bill changes asylum rules, including making claims inadmissible if the person has arrived in the UK "illegally". The government has closed the UK's resettlement schemes, meaning there are no safe and legal routes into the UK. Asylum seekers are being forced to enter the country illegally, then being punished for it, this is inhumane and unacceptable. We should welcome refugees fleeing war and/or persecution with compassion, not treat them like criminals and understand they don't have time to check their plans with the Home Secretary.

A great team effort

We've had a huge set of elections in difficult circumstances. It was a massive combined effort of volunteers and staff, candidates and agents, helpers and donors, to get several hundred Liberal Democrats elected. Thank you to everyone who played their part in an impressive team effort.

Eid marks the end of Ramadan - a holy month of prayer and personal reflection.

I'm sure it feels strange to celebrate again with Covid restrictions in place.

But despite the many challenges of the past year, I'm amazed at how we've pulled together as a country - making it clear that we are a nation of carers.

Scottish Liberal Democrats today said it's critical that every pupil currently sitting assessments has quick access to a counsellor after documents published online by the Scottish Government show a target for counsellors in schools was missed and Parliament "given the run-around"

The SNP Programme for Government contained a commitment to "create around 350 counsellors" by September 2020.

Scottish Liberal Democrat Leader Willie Rennie has today responded to the news that there will not be a specific Scottish inquiry.

Mr Rennie said:

"We owe it to those who have lost friends and family to have a full inquiry into what went wrong as well as what went right.

"We need to fully understand why other countries were able to avoid the devastating death toll that we have endured. Whether this is a Scottish or UK inquiry matters less than whether we can get to the truth.

The Prime Minister has today confirmed an inquiry into their actions during the Coronavirus pandemic under the powers of the Inquiries Act 2005.

Lessons must be learnt from the mistakes that were made"

Ed Davey

This comes after Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey first called for a full inquiry into the Government's actions during the pandemic 13 months ago in April 2020

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie has today written to alert the First Minister to waits of up to three years for children and young people for mental health treatment, and to challenge the Scottish Government to share their plan for service recovery.

The intervention, during Mental Health Awareness Week, comes after Mr Rennie gathered statistics showing children and young people waiting up to 3 years 31 days to access mental health services.

We must rebuild as a fairer, greener and more caring country in the aftermath of Covid.

Boris Johnson has utterly failed to deliver an ambitious programme

So it is crushingly disappointing that the Government's plans will fail on every account - still failing small businesses and the self-employed, still not rising properly to the climate challenge and still ignoring millions of people caring for loved ones at home.