Chamber and committees

Child Winter Heating Payment is an automatic payment, unique to Scotland, which supports families with disabled children and young people under 19 with the additional heating costs they face in winter.

Official statistics Winter Heating Benefits: Statistics for Winter 2025/2026 - Social Security Scotland published for winter 2025-26 show that Social Security Scotland made 44,525 payments, totalling £11.4 million to eligible families. Of these, 5 were made to families with a non-UK address, totalling around £1,000. Information on the countries in which those recipients were resident is not published.

Eligibility for Child Winter Heating Payment while living in a European Economic Area (EEA) country or Switzerland reflects the UK's obligations under international social security coordination arrangements. Entitlement applies only in limited circumstances, where a child or young person receives a qualifying disability benefit, has a genuine and sufficient link to Scotland, and resides in Switzerland or an eligible EEA country with a lower average winter temperature than the warmest region of the UK.

The Scottish Government keeps the operation of all devolved benefits under review. However, eligibility for people living overseas is governed by the UK's international obligations and applies only to a very small number of cases.

The £135 million additional capitalisation of the Scottish National Investment Bank is welcome investment in housing-related activity.

As with all future funding decisions, any additional capitalisation will be considered as part of budget and spending review processes

As set out in section 61 of the Crofting and Scottish Land Court Act 2026, Scottish Ministers must update guidance in relation to section 27 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 before the transfer to the merged court of the competence and jurisdiction for the matters referred to in paragraph 16 of schedule 1 (access rights) takes effect.

The Scottish Government intends to commence provisions of the Act at one agreed date, rather than on a piecemeal basis. However, as several provisions in the Act relate to reserved matters, such as jurisdictional amendments and renumeration, there are currently ongoing discussions with UK Government colleagues in the Scotland Office to outline timetables for the required Scotland Act Orders needed to complete this work. As previously stated, once a timetable has been agreed for this work, I will be in a better position to outline the required timescales for implementing provisions within the 2026 Act.

The Scottish Government is extremely grateful to the community efforts in response to the terrible wildfire in Glenmore this summer.

The Scottish Government has provided up to £3 m to Highland Council to support businesses affected and recovery of the area, it would be for Highland Council to allocate this funding to support recovery and resilience.

The Highland Council lead a Wildfire Recovery group with members from Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS), Police Scotland, NHS, Cairngorms National Park Authority, Forestry and Land Scotland and the Scottish Government among its members. I understand that the group has discussed the community response to the fires and Cairngorms National Park Authority have been gathering information from local volunteers to understand who they are and the support offered. SFRS also maintain a Community Asset Register of volunteers which it can access, when necessary, more information can be found here Community Asset Register | Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

In terms of having arrangements in place in advance, SFRS is undertaking a comprehensive debrief process in collaboration with partner organisations involved in the response to the Cairngorms wildfire. The Scottish Government is also reviewing the Wildfire Strategic Action Plan and is committed to ensuring the review is inclusive, bringing in local communities, public agencies and the wide range of those involved in the response, to identify the actions needed to support resilience to future fires.

The Scottish Household Survey (SHS), Scotland’s principal measure of volunteering participation, indicates that volunteering has continued to recover since 2023. The latest results were published in September 2026 and reported that the adult formal volunteering rate rose from 25% in 2024 to 27% in 2025. This demonstrates the sustained commitment of people across Scotland to supporting organisations and communities.

The following table shows the Adult formal volunteering rate by year, Scotland, 2019-2025

The decision by Communities Housing Trust to begin a managed withdrawal from its activities is a matter for the organisation and its trustees. The Scottish Government recognises the significant contribution Communities Housing Trust has made to rural and island housing over many years, helping communities deliver affordable homes and supporting the sustainability of local communities.

The Scottish Government is actively engaging with Communities Housing Trust to understand the implications of its decision and consider potential support.

The Scottish Government remains committed to community-led housing as part of its wider approach to meeting housing need, including through the Rural and Islands Housing Action Plan.

The following table shows the number of public electric vehicle charge points managed by ChargePlace Scotland on behalf of charge point owners, broken down by local authority area and charge point type.

These figures are based on the ChargePlace Scotland asset register data and represent the position as at 9 October 2026.

The Scottish Government engages regularly with the Department of Work and Pensions on a range of issues. This specific matter has not been raised by stakeholders with the Scottish Government therefore we have not as yet had discussions with the DWP on this matter. We will of course continue to listen to the experiences of families and wider stakeholders in considering what issues to raise with the UK Government.

Scottish Household Survey results on percentage of adults reporting that animal nuisance, such as noise or dog fouling, was very or fairly common in their neighbourhood, by year and by local authority area, are publicly available from https://www.gov.scot/publications/neighbourhoods-communities-2023-findings-scottish-household-survey/documents/ (see table 2.31 in the OpenDocument Spreadsheet).

Scottish Household Survey results on percentage of adults reporting that noisy neighbours or regular loud parties were very or fairly common in their neighbourhood, by year and by local authority area, are publicly available from https://www.gov.scot/publications/neighbourhoods-communities-2023-findings-scottish-household-survey/documents/ (see table 2.31 in the OpenDocument Spreadsheet).