Chamber and committees

We are not able to provide you with this information as no stock assessments have been undertaken for squid in recent years.

The Scottish Government is considering the Soil Association’s review of their farmed salmon organic standards and is engaging with them in dialogue.

In response to the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee inquiry on salmon farming in Scotland, we set out a broad range of actions we are taking alongside industry and regulators to enhance the development and sustainability of the sector. The Scottish Government is disappointed there was very limited consultation on the outcome of Soil Association’s review and proposals, in light of our work programme.

The Scottish Government recognises the crucial role innovation plays in enabling the sustainable development of Scottish aquaculture. We continue to work with our enterprise agencies, regulators and stakeholders to encourage innovation addressing challenges and creating opportunities for Scottish businesses.

For example, our Marine Fund Scotland awarded over £4.5 million to aquaculture projects in the year 2024-25, facilitating over £17 million of investment across the sector. In May 2024 the Scottish Government and Scottish Funding Council invested £1.5 million for the Sustainable Aquaculture Innovation Centre (SAIC) to deliver applied innovation projects to March 2026. We are also working with stakeholders to develop long term arrangements for innovation support.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) publishes statistics on the length of time patients wait to be seen as a new outpatient or admitted for treatment as an inpatient or day case in the Stage of Treatment (SoT) publication. The latest publication release contains data up to quarter ending 31 March 2025.

At 31 March 2025, there were 5,262 waits over two years for an outpatient appointment.

Trend information of the wait experienced by patients whilst still on the waiting list (ongoing waits) can be found in the ‘Waits over 52 weeks’ data table in sheets ‘Table 3.1.1’ for new outpatient appointments, and ‘Table 3.2.1’ for inpatient or day case admissions. The data is ongoing from 31 December 2019 onwards and can be filtered by health board and specialty: waits_over_52_weeks_may25.xlsx

In Scottish waters, Loligo forbesi have a spawning period extending from January to May, with the most intensive period from February to March. Loligo vulgaris are a rare sight in Scottish waters, being more commonly found in southern North Sea and the English Channel, and they spawn during December to April (with a peak between December and February).

Sources:

Graham J. Pierce, Peter R. Boyle, Lee C. Hastie, Linda Key (1994) The life history of Loligo forbesi (Cephalopoda: Loliginidae) in Scottish waters. Fisheries Research, 21(1–2,) pp. 17-41, ISSN 0165-7836.

Vladimir Laptikhovsky, A Louise Allcock, Leigh Barnwall, Christopher Barrett, Gavan Cooke, Christian Drerup, Christopher Firmin, Sophie Lozach, Eleanor MacLeod, Daniel Oesterwind, Michael Petroni, Jean-Paul Robin, Edel Sheerin, Anne-Marie Power, Graham J Pierce (2022), Spatial and temporal variability of spawning and nursery grounds of Loligo forbesii and Loligo vulgaris squids in ecoregions of Celtic Seas and Greater North Sea, ICES Journal of Marine Science,79 (6), 1918–1930, https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsac128.

The Scottish Government is focused on delivering for people across the country and making the case for taking decisions in Scotland for Scotland with independence.

The Scottish Government will publish further material on independence to give the people of Scotland the information they need to make an informed choice about their constitutional future. We are not planning an independence convention this summer.

The Scottish Government will consider the advice of the Climate Change Committee before setting out its own proposals for taking necessary actions on climate change.

The Scottish Government remains committed to supporting our livestock farmers in playing a full part in Scotland’s journey to net zero, including by reducing methane emissions in ways that strengthen farm productivity and resilience. The Scottish Government has no policy to reduce the national herd, our approach focuses on reducing emissions intensity rather than livestock numbers, through improvements in genetics, low-methane breeding, and appropriate uptake of methane-suppressing feed products. We continue to support the sector through a range of schemes including the SSBSS and through reformed direct payments – in stark contrast to the policies of UKG.

We recognise that the meat processing industry is a vital part of the supply chain, and have supported the sector. This has included a Ministerial discount scheme which has been applied to Official Veterinarian charges since 2015, as well as resource funding through the Small Producers Pilot Fund to explore solutions to challenges surrounding abattoirs and small producers’ access to private kill services. The recently published Programme for Government commits to £5 million to support food processing and marketing.

We will continue working with the sector to ensure it thrives as part of a climate-smart food system, while recognising the importance of Scotland’s livestock products to UK and international markets.

The Scottish Government fully recognises the benefits of hedgerows and trees.

As required under the Patient Rights (Scotland) Act 2011, the Charter must be reviewed at least once every 5 years. The Charter was last published in October 2022 and is scheduled to be reviewed in 2027.

The Bank makes commercial investments in businesses or projects in line with the three strategic missions set for it by Scottish Ministers:

• Achieving a Just Transition to net zero carbon emissions by 2045
• Extending equality of opportunity through improving places by 2040
• Harnessing Innovation to enable our people to flourish by 2040

The Bank has operational and administrative independence over its investment decisions, and is represented on the Grangemouth Investment Taskforce.

The Scottish Government recognises the vital role the livestock sector plays in supporting rural communities. We do not have a policy to reduce livestock numbers and fully recognise the value that livestock plays in Scotland's rural communities, maintaining bio diversity and our food sector. In order to understand what is happening within the sector we are committed to assessing, through engagement with stakeholders, the potential social and economic impacts of any changes in the size of the beef herd - whether driven by market trends, consumer behaviour, or technological change - on rural areas across Scotland.

This assessment will be carried out through ongoing engagement with farmers, crofters, industry representatives and rural stakeholders, alongside analysis of rural economies and land use. In stark contrast to the UK Government we continue to demonstrate our commitment to the beef sector through a range of support schemes, including the Scottish Suckler Beef Support Scheme (SSBSS), which provides targeted, coupled support for livestock producers In addition, the retention of the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) in Scotland is helping to maintain income stability for many beef producers. This reformed direct support reflects the unique challenges facing our farming and crofting communities and underlines our determination to deliver a sustainable future for rural Scotland.