Here are the business stories making the headlines across Scotland and the UK this morning.
Top economist calls for 'lenient' migration rules
It "absolutely makes sense" to be lenient with migration rules when firms face staff shortages, the former chief economist of the Bank of England says.
Andy Haldane told the BBC the UK should be "liberal in our visa policies" to fill skills gaps, and that in turn would help to grow the economy.
It comes after the prime minister said legal migration was too high.
The Home Office said its system allowed in the skills needed while encouraging investment in the domestic workforce.
Mr Haldane's comments come ahead of new figures on net migration to the UK due to be published this Thursday.
Shell facing tense clash on climate at AGM
Shell is set to face a tense annual general meeting that could be dominated by clashes over climate action after the oil major saw a record year of profits.
Energy Voice predicts the company will see conflicting pressures at the meeting on Tuesday as investors look to capitalise on record oil and gas profits while shareholder activists push for faster action on climate change issues.
Climate protesters are also expected to gather outside the venue at the Excel Centre in east London.
Investors will vote on pay packages for 2022, including that of outgoing chief executive Ben van Beurden, who took home £9.7million, including a £7.5million bonus – a jump of more than 50% from the previous year.
High lead and nickel found in illegal vapes
Vapes confiscated from school pupils contain high levels of lead, nickel and chromium, BBC News has found.
Used vapes gathered at Baxter College in Kidderminster were tested in a laboratory.
The results showed children using them could be inhaling more than twice the daily safe amount of lead, and nine times the safe amount of nickel.
Some vapes also contained harmful chemicals like those in cigarette smoke.
UK could meet net zero goals by halving private jet flights
The carbon footprint of private jets in the UK is on a par with 200,000 people taking a return flight to Hong Kong, according to a government-commissioned report calling for the number of flights to be halved.
The study by the consultancy Frazer Nash found that the private jets result in about 600,000 tonnes of CO2 a year. Last year about 90,000 such flights departed from the UK last year, according to Greenpeace. Among those using the planes are executives at Specsavers who took an average of 22 trips a week between Guernsey and the mainland.
The Times reports that the findings come as the European private jet industry gathers in Geneva for an industry conference that organisers said would put greener fuels “front and centre”. However, the report for the Department for Transport, which was quietly released last week, said that cutting the emissions from private jets would be “challenging” and require “significant” spending on new technologies.
Government cuts stake in NatWest with £1.26bn share sale
The government has taken another step towards fully returning NatWest Group to private ownership following its 2008 bailout by offloading a stake in the high street bank worth £1.26 billion. The sale by the Treasury has cut the taxpayers’ shareholding in the lender to 38.7% from about 41%. Ministers have set a target of selling all of the state’s stake by 2026.
Taxpayers became the biggest shareholder in NatWest when the government rescued it from the brink of collapse during the financial crisis. That £45.5billion bailout gave the state an 84% shareholding in the bank, which at the time was called Royal Bank of Scotland Group.
The government started to sell its stake in 2015 and yesterday’s deal marks its sixth block sale of NatWest stock.
Chevron adds to fracking reserves with $6.3bn deal
Chevron, the US-based oil and gas giant, is doubling down on fracking in America with a $6.3billion takeover of PDC Energy.
The all-share deal will increase Chevron’s proven oil and gas reserves by 10%, giving it 275,000 acres adjacent to Chevron’s shale assets in the Denver-Julesburg (DJ) basin in Colorado and 25,000 acres in the Permian basin in Texas.
Mike Wirth, Chevron chief executive, said: “PDC’s attractive and complementary assets strengthen Chevron’s position in key US production basins.”
PDC Energy was founded in 1969 and is based in Denver. It produced the equivalent of 233,000 barrels of oil a day last year and reported net income of $1.8billion, according to The Times.