[qwerty123]

I think this combined with the requirement for the channel to still have some news content is the reason why the news will be at 7pm.

In general, with the BBC News at 6 (on BBC One) most live reports appear within the first 15 minutes of the programme. It therefore should be fairly easy if the will desired for BBC One Scotland to have it's own separate hour long news bulletin at 6pm. They could easily lead with a major headline affecting Scotland, before covering other nations/national stories in a different order, so that any live reports didn't clash with the network. Reporting Scotland could then focus on the more local headlines, with perhaps even the option for a couple sub-opt-outs (as per how Cambridge Look East used to be).

At the end of the day Scotland is part of the UK (and certainly has more in common with the rest of us than Northern Ireland) so the flagship UK bulletin should be broadcast there. The fact that the BBC aren’t willing to stand up to the SNP and tell them that Scottish licence payers are paying for exactly the same service as the rest of us and therefore will receive exactly the same amount of local content is the only reason for BBC Scotland existing.