Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government recognises the important contribution that comedy makes to Scotland’s cultural life. While there are no dedicated comedy-specific support programme, emerging comedians and professionals working in the comedy sector can access a range of development opportunities through our wider investment in Scotland’s arts, culture and festivals infrastructure.

Through our continued support for Creative Scotland, funding is made available to individuals and organisations across the performing arts, including those working in comedy, through programmes such as Open Fund for Individuals and Open Fund for Organisations. These funds can support a wide range of research, development and project activity.

The Scottish Government is additionally providing £500,000 to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society in 2026-27 to support digital transformation and its wider work supporting artists and the sector, which includes comedy artists.

More broadly, the Scottish Government's wider investment in culture, fair work, and skills aims to support the conditions for sustainable careers across the creative economy.

The Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS) found that 30% of adults in 2024-25 said that people causing a nuisance with motorised vehicles was common in their local area. As this question was first introduced to the survey in 2024-25, figures are not available for earlier years. The SCJS does not provide breakdowns by local authority as the sample is not designed to be representative at that lower geographical breakdown.

The Scottish Government has today published its response to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry’s Module 4 report. The Scottish Government is grateful to the Inquiry and all those involved in producing such a detailed and thorough examination of vaccines and therapeutics.

The Covid-19 pandemic touched every community in Scotland and left a lasting impact on individuals, families and public services. As we publish our response to the Inquiry's Module 4 report, we take this opportunity to remember those who lost their lives, acknowledge those who continue to live with the consequences of the pandemic, and recognise the suffering experienced by so many across the country.

Vaccines and therapeutics played a critical role in protecting lives, reducing serious illness and supporting our recovery from Covid-19. The speed with which safe and effective vaccines were developed and delivered was unprecedented and demonstrated what can be achieved through collaboration between governments, public health agencies, researchers, healthcare professionals, industry and communities. It is essential we build on these achievements, whilst also learning from the challenges and inequalities highlighted by the Inquiry.

We are particularly grateful to those who shared personal experiences and evidence with the Inquiry. Their contributions have provided invaluable insight into the realities of the pandemic and have helped ensure that lessons for the future are grounded in the experiences of those most affected. We also want to acknowledge the vital work of the Covid Inquiries Response Engagement Group, whose input to the response has been invaluable. The insights shared by representatives of groups disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, including bereaved families, disabled people, minority ethnic communities, older people and others most affected by the pandemic have shaped our response.

The report's recommendations provide an important opportunity to strengthen our preparedness for future public health emergencies, reduce inequalities and build on the achievements of Scotland's vaccination programme. The Scottish Government welcomes the recommendations and remains committed to working collaboratively with partners across Scotland and the UK to build a more resilient, equitable and responsive system that protects the health and wellbeing of everyone in Scotland.

The Scottish Government will provide regular progress updates on the actions set out within the response. The response is available at: https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781807756307

The Scottish Government will publish and consult on a childcare transformation blueprint next year. When dates are set for this, I will be happy to communicate them to parliament. What is most important to me at this stage is that the consultation will engage stakeholders, childcare professionals, parents, carers and children across the country, and will help ensure that the transformation of Scotland’s childcare system reflects the needs of those families.

COPFS is committed to working with justice partners in exploring opportunities to improve witness citation arrangements, making use of technology in doing so, while ensuring the effectiveness and reliability required of the criminal justice process. While email has been a competent method of citation since 2007, its application raises practical, technological and legal considerations, including how receipt by the intended individual can be reliably established in order for effective enforcement action to be taken in the event of failures to attend court in response to citation and data protection considerations.

Email is not the only potential solution, nor would it be appropriate in every case. Consideration is extending to the opportunities that a wider range of digital solutions may offer. The approach taken must account for the needs and preferences of those receiving citations, the potential for greater choice, the operational and delivery implications of any future approach and, as recognised in the joint inspection, the need for witness citation processes to be trauma informed and use accessible language.

The Scottish Government is committed to the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The principles make clear that businesses have a responsibility to ensure their activities do not have adverse impacts on human rights.

The Scottish Government’s Guidance on Due Diligence: Human Rightssets out recommendations for how Scottish Government, executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies should undertake appropriate due diligence on companies, including their human rights record, before entering into an “investment relationship” with them.

The Scottish Government has introduced a range of measures in the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2015 (PC(S) R 2015), the Utilities Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2016, the Concession Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2016, and the Procurement (Scotland) Regulations 2016 (P(S) R 2016) aimed at ensuring contractors' compliance with environmental, social, and employment laws when performing public contracts. Under these regulations:

• mandatory exclusion applies to companies convicted of any offence under Part 1 of the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015 or any related provisions listed in its Schedule
• discretionary exclusion may be applied to companies that have breached obligations in the fields of social, environmental or employment law
• tenders that do not comply with applicable obligations in the fields of social, environmental and employment law can be rejected
• contracts must not be awarded where a tender price is abnormally low due to breaches of social, environmental or employment law
• contract clauses should be included to allow for termination in the case of breaches of social, environmental or employment law.

We also provide and maintain national Sustainable Procurement Tools and guidance that have been designed to help public bodies comply with policy and legislation, including how to take an ethical approach in their procurement activity. They provide information on how to tackle risks and opportunities at key stages of the procurement process.

We published policy guidance for public bodies in February 2020 on Reducing the risk of human trafficking and exploitation in the performance of public contracts, and in February 2026 on Human rights and grave professional misconduct.

Although individual public bodies are responsible for their own procurement decisions, we continue to encourage buyers across the public sector in Scotland to consider ethics consistently alongside other socio-economic and environmental factors through use of the tools and guidance.

The Scottish Government has introduced reforms through the Police Service of Scotland (Senior Officers) (Conduct) Amendment Regulations 2026 to strengthen the independent scrutiny and handling of misconduct allegations involving senior police officers.

Under the new arrangements, any allegation concerning a senior officer that is received by, or comes to the attention of, the Scottish Police Authority or the Chief Constable must be referred to the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (PIRC) without delay. The Commissioner is then required to assess whether the alleged conduct, if proven, would amount to misconduct, gross misconduct, or neither, and to investigate the matter where appropriate.

The reforms also provide for misconduct hearings to be chaired by a legally qualified member of the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland appointed by the Lord President. In addition, they increase transparency by enabling hearings to be held in public and by providing for the publication of outcome reports in most cases.

These measures recognise the distinct role held by senior officers, who exercise significant leadership responsibilities and are entrusted with maintaining the highest standards of public service and confidence in policing. For that reason, the senior officer misconduct regime incorporates additional safeguards to ensure independent scrutiny, transparency and accountability. Collectively, these reforms strengthen public confidence in the handling of allegations involving senior officers.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally. Individual NHS boards are responsible for recording personal data breaches and notifying the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) where required. The ICO publishes information on reported data security incidents (https://ico.org.uk/action-weve-taken/complaints-and-concerns-data-sets/self-reported-personal-data-breach-cases/) and, in August 2023, published the findings from its programme of data protection audits across Scotland’s NHS boards (https://cy.ico.org.uk/media2/l2jmsi3g/nhs-scotland-health-boards-outcomes-report-v1_1.pdf).

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. NHS Scotland Boards are the employers of resident doctors and hospital dentists and hold any information relating to individual employees' pay progression.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that people living with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis, can access safe, effective and person-centred care. Specialist IBD nurses are an important part of multidisciplinary IBD services and play a key role in supporting people to manage their condition and access appropriate specialist care.

The Scottish Government's role is to provide strategic leadership to support a sustainable NHS Scotland workforce. While we keep workforce policies and measures under review as part of wider workforce planning, decisions relating to staffing, including the recruitment and retention of specialist nursing staff, are matters for individual NHS Boards as the employer, based on service needs, taking account of national, regional and local priorities.