Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government’s human rights due diligence guidance sets out recommendations on how we, executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies should undertake due diligence on an individual or company’s human rights record before entering into an “investment relationship”.

This should include an assessment of whether an individual or company, including any parent or subsidiary, has been associated with human rights abuses anywhere in the world.

It is for the accountable officer of each agency and non-departmental public body to ensure that their organisation complies with guidance issued by Scottish ministers.

Following a debate in Parliament in February 2025, a Parliamentary motion (S6M-16571) was passed calling on Scottish Enterprise to: “review its human rights due diligence checks to ensure that they take account of where products’ end use is, and that they fully comply with legal obligations under the Export Control Act 2002 and international law”.

Scottish Enterprise confirmed in November 2025 that its updated human rights due diligence policy and procedure was finalised and being operationalised in a phased manner. The former Deputy First Minister updated Parliament on 11 December (S6W-42527) outlining the improvements confirmed by Scottish Enterprise, which included:

• An increase in the frequency of human rights due diligence checks, to every 12 months to maintain ongoing vigilance and responsiveness.
• Removal of previous exemptions and broadening of the scope of human rights due diligence checks.
• Enhanced online screening, supplemented by follow-up engagement with customers as necessary.
• Introduction of targeted customer checks, including the requirement for a customer statement specifically addressing items and activities governed by the UK Strategic Export Controls regime.
• The establishment of an internal Senior Review Group to provide strategic input and support operational decision-making.

Separately, in September 2025, the Scottish Government paused payment of new business grants to, or investment in, companies involved in the design, production, supply, and support of military equipment, technologies and services whose products or services are provided to specific identified countries, where there is plausible evidence of genocide being committed by that country.

The 2025 Medium Term Financial Strategy forecast a potential resource fiscal gap of £2.6 billion by 2029-30 and a potential capital spending gap of £2.1 billion by 2029-30.

Alongside this, the Fiscal Sustainability Delivery Plan set out the actions and efficiencies required across government over the five years to 2029-30 to resolve this, including £2.6 billion of efficiencies and other savings.

In January, Portfolio Efficiency and Reform Plans to 2028-29 set out more detailed plans to deliver £1.5 billion of efficiencies against resource spending forecasts. On Capital, the Infrastructure Delivery Pipeline set out an affordable and deliverable pipeline of capital investment to 2029-30, underpinned by the decisions and capital spending plans set out in the January Spending Review.

The annual National Improvement Framework (NIF) publication sets out the vision, key priorities and educational outcomes for children and young people. The National Improvement Framework 2026 confirms “Improvement in achievement, particularly in literacy and numeracy” as one of 5 key priorities for our education system.

As part of the package of activity taken forward under the NIF, Education Scotland has published national guidance and professional learning resources Learning to Read in the Early Years.

The guidance makes it clear that systematic phonics should form a foundational part of early reading instruction; states that phonemic awareness is key to reading development; provides definitions and advice to schools on how to develop phonemic awareness, and; provides links to a range of additional resources and advice, including advice from the Education Endowment Foundation.

Education Scotland continues to work with local government partners to share evidence-informed approaches to literacy and reading across Scotland's schools.

2026 National Improvement Framework

Education Scotland: Learning to Read in the Early Years

On the 1 September, as part of the Programme for Government, the First Minister announced the Scottish Government’s intention to simplify the NHS by replacing the current 14 territorial Health Boards with two Strategic Health Boards and build on planned reforms to further reduce the number of special Health Boards.

The Scottish Government will engage first and foremost with the workforce and we will set out and agree a process with trade unions to ensure the workforce is able to help to shape these plans. We are currently in the design phase of the work, which includes developing the business case. The work will be developed in partnership with staff, staff representatives, trade unions, stakeholders and the public, with a strong focus on the needs of rural and island communities.

We will be using the next three months to reach agreement on reform of social care which makes best use of the funding in the system, delivers fairer and more efficient services and achieves economies of scale, while maintaining a focus on community need. Making integration work is vital because the experience of services is too often fragmented and we know social and healthcare depend on each other.

On the 1 September, as part of the Programme for Government, the First Minister announced the Scottish Government’s intention to simplify the NHS by replacing the current 14 territorial Health Boards with two Strategic Health Boards and build on planned reforms to further reduce the number of special Health Boards.

The Scottish Government will engage first and foremost with the workforce and we will set out and agree a process with trade unions to ensure the workforce is able to help to shape these plans. We are currently in the design phase of the work, which includes developing the business case. The work will be developed in partnership with staff, staff representatives, trade unions, stakeholders and the public, with a strong focus on the needs of rural and island communities.

Ministers were advised on 10 July that evidence returns were slower than expected and agreed to extend the deadline to 30 September. At that point, only 552 of 1,750 beneficiaries, 32%, had submitted evidence. No verification backlog or processing capacity concern had been identified at that stage.

The pressure arose subsequently as evidence submissions became concentrated over a short period. Of the 765 cases received by the end of July, 712, 93%, assessments have now either been completed or are under review.

We do not consider that the current position demonstrates a failure to learn lessons from previous schemes. Grants were paid in advance specifically to give businesses the cash flow to make the approved investments. However, 557 beneficiaries, have still to provide evidence that the funded investment was carried out. As of 15 September 2026, 45 completed cases have resulted in recovery of grant (either in whole or in part), totalling £373,444. This demonstrates why the required verification controls must be completed.

Discussions with Local Government partners over the summer established an agreed need for reform of public services to meet the complex demographic, fiscal and demand-led challenges facing those services. Alongside engagement at an official level, the Cabinet Secretary for Public Service Reform, First Minister and I each held discussions with COSLA on behalf of local authorities which informed the approach.

As the Scottish Government takes forward implementation of this work and considers the wider reform agenda, we will continue to work closely with our Local Government partners to build consensus around a shared vision for the future of local governance. As part of this process, we will consider which functions and responsibilities may be more effectively delivered at a regional level, alongside the powers and resources that should sit closer to communities.

The Scottish Government welcomes the publication of Scottish Environment LINK's Nature Protection Scorecard. Independent scrutiny and transparent assessment of progress help to inform action to address the nature emergency and support nature restoration.

The Scorecard highlights a range of issues across different organisations and policy areas, many of which align with existing priorities, actions and metrics set out in the Scottish Government’s Scottish Biodiversity Strategy, and supporting delivery plan.

A robust approach to monitoring and evaluation of our strategy and delivery plan will ensure accountability, and help drive action to meet our ambitions and future statutory targets.

Since the publication of the strategy we have been working on our approach to monitoring and evaluation. Our approach uses a suite of indicators to track progress towards the Strategy’s outcomes and inform adaptive management along side annual delivery plan assessments which helps to ensure we are taking the appropriate corrective actors to remain on the right trajectory.

We will publish our first statutory report on delivery of the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy in 2027.

While the adoption of specific programmes and approaches is a matter for individual local authorities, the Scottish Government welcomes the focus on phonics as part of the steps being taken by Glasgow City Council to improve reading and literacy outcomes for pupils. As per answer to Parliamentary Question S7W-03170 on 21 September 2026, Education Scotland's professional learning resource, Learning to Read in the Early Years (2024) identifies systematic phonics as a critical component of early reading instruction.

A part of its work to review and update the curriculum, Education Scotland oversees a National Literacy Network which includes representatives from Glasgow City Council. In addition, Glasgow City Council is represented within the Curriculum Improvement Cycle Collaboration Group for English and Literacy. Education Scotland will therefore continue to engage with local authority representatives to ensure that evidence on the impact of the programme can be considered and shared more widely.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

The Scottish Government has no plans to commission a feasibility study around the restoration of Holyrood Abbey as a national memorial chapel.

Holyrood Abbey is a Property-in-Care managed by Historic Environment Scotland on behalf of Scottish Ministers. The Properties-in-Care are part of the national estate of historic monuments and sites that are cared for to ensure their long-term preservation and deliver public benefit.

Decisions regarding the conservation, maintenance and management of Holyrood Abbey are therefore made by Historic Environment Scotland.