Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government drafted a regulatory position on marine licensing and shared this with ports in 2024. Since then, officials have received and considered feedback and have updated ports, most recently via Scottish Offshore Wind Ports Alliance (SOWPA) in May 2026. The marine licensing team (MD-LOT) has offered and given direct guidance to ports seeking to apply for marine licences, ensuring the regulatory process runs smoothly.

Scotland’s resilience arrangements are designed to be flexible and adaptable to a wide range of emergencies, including wildfires.

Under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, Category 1 responders are required to assess risks, maintain emergency plans and put in place arrangements to warn, inform and protect the public. Scotland’s multi-agency resilience arrangements are set out in the Preparing Scotland guidance and associated guidance on the care of people affected by emergencies.

The Scottish Government does not prescribe national minimum standards for the evacuation of communities affected by wildfire. Instead, resilience partners are expected to develop and maintain proportionate local arrangements, informed by local risks and circumstances, including arrangements for evacuation, transport, shelter, humanitarian assistance and support for those affected. Scottish Government officials work closely with resilience partners through established resilience structures to review, exercise and continually improve these arrangements.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that consultation processes are open, transparent and informed by a broad range of evidence and views.

Existing consultation processes seek information about respondents and the organisations they represent. The Scottish Government recognises the value of transparency regarding the interests represented by consultation respondents, including any funding arrangements that may support their activities. This helps ministers, officials and the public understand the context in which evidence and views are presented, while ensuring that all interested stakeholders have the opportunity to contribute to policy discussions.

The Scottish Government is currently working with local government and Police Scotland to assess the closure powers regime under Part 4 of the Antisocial Behaviour etc. (Scotland) Act 2004 and identify any changes that may be required. This includes considering comparable regimes elsewhere in the UK and recommendations from bodies such as the Chartered Trading Standards Institute. We are also considering whether the current banning order regime could be strengthened as part of the development of the next Tobacco and Vaping Framework Implementation Plan, which is due to be published later this year.

The total spend on consultancy services for each financial year from 2021-2022 to 2024-2025 is as follows. Please note the data for 2025-2026 is not yet available as the audit is still in process.

Women’s Health is a priority for the Scottish Government which is why we were the first county in the UK to publish a Women’s Health Plan, informed by the lived experiences of women and girls. Our ambition is for all women and girls in Scotland to enjoy the best possible health – throughout their lives. This is applicable across policies and services, as well as the Women’s Health Plan’s specific programme of work.

I have Ministerial responsibility for Women’s Health and am driving forward progress on the both Scottish Government’s Women’s Health Plan and wider work being undertaken to address inequalities in women's health.

Phase Two of the Women's Health Plan was published in January 2026 and an accompanying document, ‘The Health of Women and Girls: Beyond the Women’s Health Plan’ was published alongside in order to demonstrate the breadth of work underway across health policy to achieve our collective ambition.

While rail access is a reserved matter and responsibility for assessing the impact of changes proposed through the Railways Bill rests with the UK Government, the Scottish Government is closely engaged in rail reform discussions and will continue to represent Scotland’s interests throughout their development. We welcome the provisions requiring Great British Railways to have regard to Scottish Ministers’ rail freight strategies and policies, and to consult Scottish Ministers when developing its Access and Use Policy. Through our ongoing engagement with the rail freight sector, the UK Government, Network Rail and Great British Railways’ shadow arrangements, we will continue to make the case for reforms that support a competitive, sustainable and growing rail freight sector in Scotland.

The Scottish Government recognises the challenges facing the planning profession in Scotland and we have taken account of a range of research. The Royal Town Planning Institute’s State of the Profession 2025: Scotland report shows the aging demographic profile of the profession and the need to attract and develop future planners. Research undertaken by Skills Development Scotland and the National Planning Improvement Team’s annual Workforce and Capacity Report highlights that further action is needed to meet demand for planning professionals and ensure sufficient current and future capacity within the planning system.

We are taking action to ensure that planning services have the capacity, skills and expertise needed to operate efficiently and to increase confidence and certainty in the planning process. This complements other organisations’ investments in their professional planning teams.

Last year, the Scottish Government invested £850,000 to help reverse the decline in the planning profession by creating the following pathways into planning for 48 new student planners:

• 17 graduates joined our award-winning Future Planners Programme, undertaking a two-year programme of work-based learning.
• A further 30 students received support through our Planning Bursary Scheme while undertaking professionally accredited planning degrees.
• We are also developing talent within Government by supporting a member of staff to undertake a part-time, work-based planning qualification.

This year, a further £150,000 has been offered to Dundee, Glasgow and Heriot-Watt Universities, through our Planning Bursary Scheme, with the funding shared across the three universities to support access to RTPI-accredited postgraduate planning courses across the country.

The first cohort of Future Planners is expected to be qualified and career-ready by July 2027, supporting a pipeline of planners. We are currently developing options for a second iteration of our Future Planners Programme.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of identifying and managing actual, potential and perceived conflicts of interest in policymaking and engagement activities and supports the principles of transparency, accountability, independence and evidence-based decision-making in public health.

Published guidance is available through Public Health Scotland's Framework for interacting with the private sector and managing conflicts of interest, which sets out principles for engagement with the private sector and the management of conflicts of interest in a public health context. The Scottish Government approach aligns with these principles.

In addition, The Scottish Government adheres to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC). Under Article 5.3 of the WHO FCTC, we have a legal obligation "to protect these policies from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry in accordance with national law" when setting and implementing public health policies with respect to tobacco control.

The introduction of the vaping product duty, as with any excise duty, is a reserved matter.

Under measures supporting the Vaping Duty Stamps scheme, HMRC has new powers to share information with other public authorities with enforcement responsibilities, such as Border Force and Trading Standards, relating to vaping products.

Intelligence is also shared across the 4-nations as part of the Cross Government Vape Enforcement Committee, led by the UK Department of Business and Trade and includes representation from HMRC and Trading Standards.

The Vaping Duty Stamps scheme enables enforcement bodies and industry to quickly identify products that are non-duty paid and will enable retailers and consumers to identify illicit products.

If a retailer, or a member of the general public, suspects that a product is illicit or non-compliant, they should report this to their local Trading Standards in the first instance.