An estimated 12,000 young people across the Rutherglen Scottish parliamentary constituency are set to benefit from free bus travel to be introduced by the Scottish Government.

Rutherglen MSP Clare Haughey, local charity REACH Lanarkshire Autism, and Clydebridge-based company Tillicoultry Quarries have teamed up with Eastfield Leisure Centre to introduce new autism-friendly swimming sessions at the sports venue.

Rutherglen MSP Clare Haughey and Councillor Janine Calikes (Rutherglen Central and North ward) have welcomed news that an application for a waste facility on Cathcart Road has been withdrawn.

Professional counselling services will be available to all secondary school pupils in South Lanarkshire who require it by September next year. Across Scotland, the Scottish Government will invest £60 million in the new services over the next four years, including £3,592,000 for schools across South Lanarkshire. This financial year alone, £709,000 will allocated to the local authority.

The Scottish Welfare Fund made 1915 payments to people in South Lanarkshire in the latest financial quarter newly released figures show – an increase of 32 percent compared to the same period last year.

On Friday 11 October, a jobs fair will be held in Glasgow city centre for former Thomas Cook employees who were made redundant last month. The holiday firm ceased trading on the 23 September, leaving tens of thousands stranded abroad and costing around 9000 UK workers a job – including those based at the Thomas Cook store on Rutherglen Main Street which has since closed.

Rutherglen MSP Clare Haughey and Cambuslang East councillor Katy Loudon have backed a UK-wide campaign to raise awareness of the menopause. The Pausitivity campaign founded by journalist Elizabeth Carr-Ellis is encouraging people across the UK to promote posters on bulletin boards, GP practices, sports venues and more, highlighting the symptoms of the menopause.

Around 16 per cent of the total number of children in the Rutherglen Westminster constituency could be affected by the two-child cap, according to new research – prompting fresh calls for the UK Government to scrap the “heartless” policy.

Blantyre MSP Clare Haughey has written to the chief executive of ASDA urging the company to roll-back in its attempts to change staff contacts. ASDA has announced that it is seeking to move all retail staff onto a new controversial contract which could see workers lose their entitlement for paid breaks and force them to work bank holidays or take leave in return for £9-an-hour pay rates.

Local MSP Clare Haughey is encouraging Rutherglen and Cambuslang residents to sign-up to a scheme to help inform key decisions in the design of Scotland’s new social security system.