Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that finances remain on a sustainable trajectory and that we continue to reach a balanced position each year. The upcoming Medium Term Financial Strategy and Fiscal Sustainability Delivery Plans will set out how we will progress work to achieve our financial aims over the next five years.

While the Scottish Government ensure devolved benefits are adequately and sustainably financed to provide meaningful support, we are deeply concerned about the cuts to sickness and disability benefits announced by the Labour Government. These changes will push 250,000 people, including 50,000 children into poverty by 2029-30, and will reduce the funding Scotland receives for devolved disability benefits.

Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) in Scotland are covered by both devolved and reserved regulations, including planning and fire safety. There is a statutory structure that must be followed for all decision-making.

The Scottish Government can only comment on the funding we provide, rather than all ‘public money’. Any funding issued by the Scottish Government is done so in line with the Scottish Public Finance Manual, and Grant Offer Letters to all third sector organisations clearly set out the conditions for which the funding can be used.

Charities must act in accordance with the requirements of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005, which sets out that a charity cannot be set up to advance a political party. Any breach of obligations under charity law is for OSCR, who are independent of Scottish Ministers, to determine.

However, charities can and do undertake campaigning activity. The Scottish Government fully support the right of charities to campaign on behalf of those they represent and influence changes in policy.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) currently licences and regulates 345 sewer networks operated by Scottish Water, carrying out inspections on a rolling basis under the Water Environment (Controlled Activities) (Scotland) Regulations 2011 (CAR).

SEPA is currently consulting on its proposals for a new Environmental Performance Assessment Scheme to improve overall levels of compliance, which is available at https://consultation.sepa.org.uk/compliance-and-beyond/epas/.

In 2025, the Scottish Government is incorporating CAR, along with the authorising regimes for industrial emissions, radioactive substances, and waste, into an integrated authorisation framework called the Environmental Authorisation (Scotland) Regulations 2018. One of the main benefits of an integrated authorisation framework for SEPA is more effective enforcement tools to better deal with non-compliant sites and protect the environment. Other benefits are improved efficiency and a more risk based, targeted approach to enforcement.

As this is an operational matter for Scottish Water I have asked them to respond. Their reply is as follows:

Scottish Water has already published this data at https://www.scottishwater.co.uk/Your-Home/Your-Waste-Water/Overflows/Live-Overflow-Map.

Currently, data from around 1,100 overflow monitor locations is included on the overflow map. As additional monitors are installed and data from these is checked, more monitor locations are added to the overflow map.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency monitors the water quality of Scotland’s rivers and designated bathing beaches and publishes its classification results annually.

87% of Scotland’s entire water environment is assessed by SEPA as having a high or good classification for water quality, up from 82% in 2014, and for rivers the figure is 85%.

SEPA’s most recent Bathing Waters classification shows that 97% of Scotland’s bathing waters currently achieve the bathing water quality standards with 87% being rated good or excellent, up from 84% in 2023.

Scotland is renowned worldwide for the quality of our rivers, lochs and seas, supporting our tourism economy with our natural environment attracting millions of visitors every year with a total of 109 million tourism visits to Scotland in 2023.

The Scottish Government has not carried out modelling of this type.

The Scottish Government appreciates the unique challenges faced by remote, rural and island communities across the country. As such, a Task and Finish Group focussing on supporting sustainability of health services across Scotland has been created. Utilising a population-based planning approach, the Group aims to improve access to safe, quality healthcare for our population.

Working with stakeholders across the Remote, Rural and Island landscape, this Group will determine a framework for a sustainable model of care in these areas, acknowledging the unique challenges faced by patients and Health Boards within these regions.

Guided by the eighty-three recommendations of the 2008 Delivering for Remote and Rural Healthcare Report, and aligning to the principles of the National Clinical Strategy and forthcoming National Clinical Framework, the Group will develop a sustainable operating model for the provision of high-quality, efficient healthcare services, offering parity of care across these communities.

Over the last two months, the Group has facilitated two workshops with a variety of key Remote, Rural and Island stakeholders, including healthcare and policy professionals. Through examination of current ways of working, the Group has identified a number of areas where improvements to service delivery may be possible.

This work forms the basis of the Group’s Remote, Rural and Islands Action Plan, which will be further developed and implemented over the coming months.

The Scottish Government estate is under review to allow us to plan for affordable, inclusive, accessible, modern, secure, energy efficient buildings of the right size to meet our changing needs and net zero ambitions, as well as to ensure best value for taxpayers’ money.

The Scottish Government is aware of concerns that have been raised on this important matter. We ran a consultation between December 2024 and February 2025, to seek views on how best to further regulate non-surgical cosmetics procedures. Over 2200 responses were received which the Scottish Government is carefully analysing.

We have also already engaged with, and will continue to engage with, a range of stakeholders including healthcare professionals as we consider the evidence gathered to date.

Our proposals aim to be both robust and proportionate, protecting the public and our precious NHS whilst supporting reputable business to operate safely.

We will publish the analysis and announce next steps which I have committed to doing before the Scottish Parliament’s summer recess in late June.

Our consultation on proposals for a Social Housing Net Zero Standard estimated the total upfront costs of installing clean heating systems and improving energy efficiency in social housing would be around £6 billion by 2045, with an average cost per home of around £14,000.

Financing the clean heat transition for social housing will require both public and private contributions, with the recent Green Heat Finance Taskforce Part 2 report exploring how to attract greater private investment including through mechanisms which spread repayment costs over a longer timeframe. The Scottish Government will respond to the Taskforce report in the coming months.