Here are the business stories making the headlines across Scotland and the UK this morning.
Kingsmill owner to buy Hovis to make UK bread giant
Kingsmill's owner has said it has agreed to buy rival Hovis and plans to merge the companies in a move that would create the UK's biggest bread brand.
Associated British Foods (ABF) which also owns Primark, Ryvita and Twinings, said it would cut costs to make the two currently loss-making businesses profitable.
The Unite union represents workers at Hovis and Kingsmill and warned it would "not tolerate attacks on jobs, pay or conditions".
Click here to read more.
‘Outdated’ jury selection system missing thousands in new-builds
Hundreds of thousands of people who live in new-build homes are being excluded from jury service because of outdated court IT systems that do not recognise their addresses.
Potential jurors are picked by random from a historic address database that covers the whole country. However, according to senior court officials, the database cannot search the postcodes of new housing estates, meaning that about 400,000 potential jurors cannot be summoned.
Opposition politicians said it was “unacceptable” that thousands of people were being denied the chance to serve on juries, calling it an “affront to democracy”.
Read the full story in The Times.
Reform UK bans local branches from organising events on WhatsApp
Reform UK has banned its local branches from organising political events on WhatsApp after fears of infiltration from the far right.
Rules handed down to local affiliates last month, seen by The Times, will force branch officers to sign non-disclosure agreements and prevent them from opening their own bank accounts.
It hands sweeping powers to the national party to override the rules and suspend members.
Qantas hit with record fine for illegal layoffs during pandemic
An Australian court has fined airline giant Qantas a record A$90m (£43m; $59m) for illegally sacking more than 1,800 ground workers during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Australia's Transport Workers' Union said it welcomed the penalty, which is the largest imposed by a court for violations of industrial relations laws in the country's history.
Federal Court Justice Michael Lee said in the judgement that he wanted the fine to act as a "real deterrence" to other employers.